Thread: Covered California Notifies Subscribers of Up to 57 Percent Rate Increases

Covered California Notifies Subscribers of Up to 57 Percent Rate Increases



17 Oct 2016

Covered California, the state’s Obamacare health exchange, has started mailing notices to 1.3 million subscribers, announcing rate hikes of up to 57 percent for next year.

California health regulators have been forced to approve stunning rate hikes as insurance companies, doctors, and other health professionals continue to flee Covered California’s high costs and rigid health mandates.

California’s version of Obamacare sent its 1.3 million subscribers and prospects a mailer inviting them to go to the Covered California website and use the “Shop and Compare” tool to see just how much health insurance premiums skyrocketed.

The statewide “sticker shock” for Covered California healthcare insurance premiums next year is 13.2 percent — more than triple the roughly four percent increases in each of the previous two years.

Two of California’s biggest insurers — Blue Shield and Anthem — asked for some of the biggest statewide rate hikes. Blue Shield’s premiums are spiking up by an average of more than 19 percent, and Anthem’s rates are leaping by more than 16 percent.

The only reason that Covered California has not collapsed is that 90 percent of Covered California subscribers get subsidies, according to the IRS. Last year, that average federal subsidy for more than 800,000 California households was $5,200 a year, about $436 per month.

This $4.2 billion in Covered California taxpayer subsidy cost does not include the so called “churn.” An excess of 200,000 subscribers initially signed up last year for Covered California, often with a fraudulent name and address. These “subscribers” made their first payment at the start of 2016, quickly used a tremendous amount of service, and then never paid another premium.

But according to Covered California’s chief executive, Peter Lee, everything is fine: “The assistance provided through the Affordable Care Act helped bring health coverage within reach for more than a million people, and it changed lives across the state.”

Covered California healthcare premium rates are set for each region and each insurance company. The average rate increase for the City of Los Angeles and the southwest Los Angeles County region is more than 14 percent for 2017.

Blue Shield-preferred provider organization was chosen by 21 percent of the Los Angeles region participants in 2016. They were authorized by Covered California to raise rates by an average of 19.5 percent next year.

For example, A 40-year-old single person with reported income of $17,820 to $23,760, who chose a Blue Shield “silver” level plan in 2016, paid a monthly premium rate of $122 in 2016 because he received a federal government subsidy of $196 paid to the insurer. But in 2017, the same Covered California subscriber will pay $170 a month, and the federal government will pay a $211 subsidy each month to Blue Shield.

As Jamie Court, president of the progressive Consumer Watchdog headquartered in Santa Monica, told the Los Angeles Times, “We’re paying more for less,” adding, “Insurers are limiting access to doctors and hospitals while also demanding a higher price.”

Obamacare’s California sticker shock is being repeated for 12 million subscribers across every state as insurers have abandoned coverage options in many parts of the nation, due to Obamacare’s wildly expensive plan design and doctors unwilling to treat patients for miserly low reimbursement rates.

Covered California’s Lee tried to understate the sticker shock crisis when he testified to the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee on July 12. Lee claimed that 2017 was just “a transitional year” for Obamacare, with “significant adjustments” across the nation.

Although the official name for Obamacare is “The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,” this year’s average national healthcare premium increase is an unaffordable +24 percent. With a rate increase of just 13.2, Covered California subscribers are suffering only about half of the sticker shock as the rest of America.

http://www.breitbart.com/california/...ate-increases/

They Lie about the Premium!!!!!!!

I have Blue Shield Silver plan and I pay monthly premium $798.00

Covered California insurance hikes are starting to pinch ( up an average of 13.2 percent )

By Victoria Colliver
October 16, 2016 Updated: October 16, 2016 10:37pm

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Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle

Literary agent Ted Weinstein says his health care premiums have gone from the $773 a month he paid in 2014 to over $1,300.


Next year’s health insurance rates for individual policyholders are starting to hit mailboxes, and that’s proving to be painful for some California consumers.

Covered California, the state’s health insurance marketplace created by the federal health law, warned in July that 2017 premiums would go up an average of 13.2 percent, or more than triple the average 4 percent rate increases that consumers have seen since the exchange started offering coverage in 2014.

Around 90 percent of Covered California’s
1.4 million enrollees get some federal aid to help cover the cost of their premiums. The increases will be felt most acutely by those policyholders who make too much money to qualify for those subsidies. These are self-employed people or those who otherwise don’t get health insurance through their employers.

“I was in favor of Obamacare,” said Ted Weinstein, a self-employed literary agent in San Francisco, referring to the Affordable Care Act. “Now I’m taking it in the shorts with a 27 percent rate increase (next) year.”

Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle


Rich Manuzon sets up a Covered California health care coverage enrollment van operated by Kaiser Permanente in Oakland in 2015. For 2017, many Covered California customers are facing larger premium increases.

Weinstein, who emphasizes he supports expanding coverage to the millions of Americans without health insurance, said he’s frustrated that his Anthem policy, which cost $773 a month in 2014 when the major elements of the health law kicked in, has now shot up to over $1,300.

About 10 million Americans who buy individual health insurance either through or outside the state and federal marketplaces don’t receive any federal subsidies to help lower their costs, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Weinstein, for example, does not qualify for a subsidy.

President Obama’s signature health legislation has come under fire in this election season, with major insurers like Aetna and UnitedHealth retreating from the marketplaces, as well as the rising premiums. Even the law’s supporters, like Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton, a Democrat, are lobbing criticisms. Dayton last week declared the Affordable Care Act “no longer affordable,” with individual premiums in the state exchange increasing next year by an average of 50 to 67 percent.

California has been largely considered successful in rolling out its exchange and keeping premiums under control, but this year is proving to be challenging.

While rates are going up an average of 13.2 percent statewide, Covered California’s largest insurers — Anthem and Blue Shield of California — are increasing rates by 17.2 percent and 19.9 percent respectively. The state has no laws or regulations that cap premium increases.

“Things are working better in California than almost everywhere else, but it’s still not perfect,” said Larry Levitt, a senior vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health research and communications organization. “If open enrollment goes poorly, it’s possible there could be further plan exits and bigger premium increases this next year.”

This year’s open enrollment period starts Nov. 1 and ends Jan. 31, 2017, but people can sign up outside that period under special circumstances such as if they lost their coverage due to a job loss, divorce or move.

Anthem and Blue Shield have blamed the increases on several reasons, including higher-than-expected use of medical services by members, increased cost of prescription drugs and high costs incurred by people who signed up for coverage outside the open enrollment period.

The burden of the higher rates isn’t being shared equally throughout the state. Northern California historically has had higher premiums than Southern California for a variety of reasons including hospital-network mergers, but some of the contrasts are stark.

In Santa Clara County, premiums are going up a weighted average of 9.2 percent, while people in San Francisco will see their rates increase by 14.8 percent, according to figures released by Covered California. Meanwhile, in Monterey, San Benito and Santa Cruz counties, where there is little competition among providers, average premiums are skyrocketing by 28.6 percent.

Covered California, which started sending out renewal notices on Oct. 5, has recommended that consumers shop around and compare plans.

The exchange offers 11 plans, but the number of choices varies by region. Covered California officials estimated 7.4 percent of enrollees can choose from only two plans. San Francisco, by contrast, offers six different carriers.

Weinstein, 54, said similar coverage from other insurers cost about the same, but he’s most disturbed by benefit changes in his plan that no longer provide coverage if he wishes to visit an out-of-network doctor or hospital.

Weinstein said Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s message about how the Affordable Care Act is not affordable resonates for many Americans. While he doesn’t support Trump’s solutions, he said Trump talks more directly about the law’s problems than does Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee.

“Real people who are paying out of pocket are getting ravaged with rate increases,” he said. “Until they address that, Obama and Hillary and everybody else are not going to get any public support.”

Victoria Colliver is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email:vcolliver@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @vcolliver

The cost
of coverage

Covered California premium increases vary throughout the state. The 2017 increase (weighted average) for counties in the Bay Area:

Alameda
12.3%

Contra Costa
13.6%

San Francisco
14.8%

San Mateo
11.7%

Santa Clara
9.2%

Marin, Napa, Solano
and Sonoma
12.5%

Statewide
13.2%

	Source: Covered California

http://www.sfchronicle.com/health/ar...ng-9975042.php

Covered California 2017 Plan Improvements?

By Phil Daigle on October 17, 2016 6:43 AM | No Comments


Question: Can you give me a quick outline of the benefit changes in Covered California plans in 2017?
Answer: In 2017, Covered California health plans have improved benefit designs by reducing the number of services that are subject to a deductible. People in Silver, Gold and Platinum plans will pay a flat copay for emergency room visits without having to satisfy a deductible. Urgent care costs in every plan will be same as the primary care visit. People in Silver 70 plans will save as much as $55 on an urgent care visit and $10 on a primary care visit. Even people in the most affordable Bronze plans can now see their doctor or a specialist three times before the visits are subject to the deductible.

http://www.cahba.com/advice/covered_california/ +

I have not used my insurance since I was kicked off my private plan ($240 premium) and forced into the exchanges 2 years ago with a $798 premium.

I am self employed and do not qualify for subsidies.

With a history of cancer I have no other option than to take the risk and drop the insurance when I get renewal increase later this month.