Older ACA enrollees could see jump in premiums
For the past three years, the ACA has blocked insurers from charging older enrollees in the federal marketplace plans more than three times the amount charged young, healthy adults for the same plan. The difference can be hundreds of dollars a month.
A plan proposed by
The idea behind adopting the 3-1 ratio in what's called "age-band rating" was to somewhat flatten premium costs across generations.
Under a previous standard, some states allowed insurers to charge up to five times or more for older people.
The
But a 60-year-old would see a
There were multiple reasons for that trend.
Only two years before President
This hit older workers particularly hard,
"I think the important point for [insurers] is that they want to get young, healthy people into the insurance pool," he said. "The problem is that the age ratio ends up penalizing people at the other end who can't afford insurance."
The
The ACA marketplace has proved challenging for insurers. Highmark has been among the harder hit, estimating that it paid
One major factor in the losses was a shortage of young, healthy enrollees whose premiums would help offset costs incurred by older people more likely to have developed chronic conditions such as diabetes or other medical problems.
"We think changing the age band would be one way to help lower costs for the younger, healthier adults so they feel more encouraged to participate," said Kristine Grow, senior vice president for communications at
That, in turn, would help stabilize the market and lead to lower premiums for everyone, she said.
With marketplace premiums subsequently going up, and some insurers dropping out, they have some evidence to back that up.
He suggested that additional subsidies or different plan offerings could bring in younger members while not pricing out their older counterparts.
"There are a number of other options that we're happy to consider," he said. "We just don't like this approach where we make people at the high end pay exorbitant rates."
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