(Reuters)—The average premium for benchmark 2017 Obamacare insurance plans sold on Healthcare.gov rose 25% compared with 2016, according to the U.S. government on Monday, the biggest increase since the insurance first went on sale in 2013 for the following year.
The average monthly premium for the benchmark plan is rising to $302 from $242 in 2016, the Department of Health and Human Services says. The agency attributed the large increase to insurers adjusting their premiums to reflect two years of cost data that became available.
Large national insurers, including Aetna Inc., UnitedHealth Group Inc. and Anthem Inc., have said they are losing money on the exchanges, created under President Barack Obama’s national healthcare reform law, because patient costs are higher than anticipated. Both UnitedHealth and Aetna have pulled out of the exchanges for 2017.
Premium increases have become fodder for the presidential race, as Republican candidate Donald Trump calls for the repeal of the Affordable Care Act if he is elected and Democrat Hillary Clinton calls for expanding it.
The government agency says the 2017 premium increase comes after two years of very low increases in the marketplace for the second-lowest cost “silver” plan, the benchmark plan used to calculate cost-sharing subsidies. The “silver” plan sits in the bottom half in terms of how many costs are covered, between bronze and gold. There is also a platinum plan.
Average premiums for the silver plan increased 2% in 2015 and were up 7% in 2016, the agency says.
The figure reflects premiums on Healthcare.gov, the federally run website that sells plans for about two-thirds of the states. Including four states and the District of Columbia, which run their own insurance marketplaces, and those that have reported data, the average premium rose 22%, the agency says.
Eight other states have not yet reported their premiums, it says.
The annual report was prepared by the health department’s Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation.1
Reference
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Office of Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. Health insurance marketplace enrollment projections for 2017. 2016 Oct 19.
