Individual insurance market performance in late 2017
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Series Title(s):
- Issue brief (Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation)
- Author(s):
- Cox, Cynthia, author Semanskee, Ashley, author Levitt, Larry, author
- Contributor(s):
- Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, issuing body.
- Publication:
- Menlo Park, CA : Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, January 2018
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Health Care Reform Health Insurance Exchanges -- statistics & numerical data Insurance, Health -- statistics & numerical data Forecasting Health Insurance Exchanges -- economics Health Insurance Exchanges -- trends Health Insurance Exchanges -- utilization Insurance, Health -- economics Insurance, Health -- trends Insurance, Health -- utilization Humans United States United States.
- Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- Concerns about the stability of the individual insurance market under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) have been raised in the past year following exits of several insurers from the exchange markets, and again with renewed intensity in recent months during the debate over repeal of the health law. Our earlier analysis of first quarter financial data from 2011-2017 found that insurer financial performance indeed worsened in 2014 and 2015 with the opening of the exchange markets, but showed signs of improving in 2016 and stabilizing in 2017 as insurers began to regain profitability. In this brief, we look at recently-released third quarter financial data from 2017 to examine whether recent premium increases were sufficient to bring insurer performance back to pre-ACA levels. These new data from the first nine months of 2017 offer further evidence that the individual market has been stabilizing and insurers are regaining profitability, even as political and policy uncertainty and the repeal of the individual mandate penalty as part of tax reform legislation cloud expectations for 2018 and beyond. Third quarter financial data reflects insurer performance in 2017 through September, before the Administration ceased payments for cost-sharing subsidies effective October 12, 2017. The loss of these payments during the fourth quarter of 2017 will diminish insurer profits, but nonetheless, insurers are likely to see better financial results in 2017 than they did in earlier years of the ACA Marketplaces. We use financial data reported by insurance companies to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners and compiled by Mark Farrah Associates to look at the average premiums, claims, medical loss ratios, gross margins, and enrollee utilization from third quarter 2011 through third quarter 2017 in the individual insurance market.1 Third quarter data is year-to-date from January 1--September 30. These figures include coverage purchased through the ACA's exchange marketplaces and ACA-compliant plans purchased directly from insurers outside the marketplaces (which are part of the same risk pool), as well as individual plans originally purchased before the ACA went into effect.
- Copyright:
- Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY license. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (6 pages))
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 101727560 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101727560