Individual insurance market performance in 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:
- San Francisco, CA : Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, May 2018
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Insurance, Health -- statistics & numerical data Insurance, Health -- trends Forecasting Insurance, Health -- economics Private Sector 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 for 2017, and again last year during the debate over repeal of the health law. In this brief, we look at recently-released annual financial data from 2017 to examine whether recent premium increases were sufficient to bring insurer performance back to pre-2014 levels, when new ACA insurance market rules took effect. These new data from 2017 offer further evidence that insurers in the individual market are regaining profitability, even as political and policy uncertainty, repeal of the individual mandate penalty as part of tax reform legislation, and proposed regulations to expand loosely-regulated short-term insurance plans cloud expectations for the future. Annual financial data reflects insurer performance in 2017 through December of last year. The Administration ceased payments for cost-sharing subsidies effective October 12, 2017. The loss of these payments during the fourth quarter of 2017 diminished insurer profits, but nonetheless, insurers saw better financial results in 2017 than they did in earlier years of the ACA. Markets in parts of the country remain fragile, with little competition and an insufficient number of healthy enrollees to balance those who are sick. However, absent any policy changes, it is likely that insurers would generally have required only modest premium increases in 2018 and in 2019 as well. Insurers are now beginning to file proposed rates for 2019. 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 2011 through 2017 in the individual insurance market. 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 (7 pages))
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 101740259 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101740259