Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Don't Just Stick With Your Current Health Plan; Shop Around For 2016, Study Advises
You better shop around. For holiday gifts? No, for a 2016 health insurance plan on the federal marketplace, healthcare.gov. Millions of consumers who are enrolled this year could pay higher rates if they stay in the same health plan next year, according to a study released Wednesday by the Kaiser Family Foundation. (Galewitz, 11/18)
The study ... looked at a type of coverage called the "lowest cost silver plan." A hypothetical 40-year-old faced an average premium of $264 for the lowest cost silver plan in 2015. If that consumer stays in the same plan for 2016, the premium would be $304, or 15 percent more. (11/18)
The analysis shows that premiums are escalating for 2016 in virtually all of these plans. And in nearly three-fourths of the counties where consumers can buy coverage through the federal insurance exchange, the plan that was the lowest-price option for 2015 will no longer have the least expensive premium next year. The findings by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health policy organization, reinforce a message that the Obama administration has been spreading since the Nov. 1 start of the third year's enrollment period under the Affordable Care Act: Consumers risk insurance-premium sticker shock unless they are willing to switch to a different plan. (Goldstein, 11/18)
