Maryland insurance regulators recently slashed prices by as much as half of what health insurance companies requested for individual health plans that will be sold starting Oct. 1 through the state’s insurance marketplace known as the Maryland Health Connection exchange. The prices are among the lowest in the nation.
A 21-year-old non-smoker, for instance, can buy a plan for as low as $93 a month, the Post notes. A 50-year-old could buy a “silver” plan for between $260 and $269 a month in Maryland, compared with $319 in New York and $329 in Virginia, the Post reports.
Prices for all nine carriers planning to sell policies in the marketplace were reduced by regulators, according to reports from
Kaiser Health News and the
Washington Post. Maryland is among 31 states where regulators can deny premium increases justified by health-law changes.
Maryland’s dominant insurer, CareFirst, received roughly half of the 25% rate increase it had asked for, the Post reports.
Regulators cut Aetna’s requested price by 29%, though the company disagreed with about 20 percentage points of the cut and declined to amend its rate filing to reflect the cuts, the state insurance administration says. Kaiser News says it was not clear whether Aetna will carry out plans to participate in Maryland’s marketplace.
Maryland Health and Mental Hygiene Secretary Joshua Sharfstein says the state’s decision to keep thousands of chronically ill patients in a separate, temporary high risk pool will help control exchange costs next year, as well as slowing medical cost increases and rebates to consumers from insurers when their premiums produced higher profits than permitted by the government.
For more on how the Affordable Care Act will affect home health agency employees’ insurance coverage, turn to
Home Health Line.