Two more states have released proposed Affordable Care Act premiums over the past few days. The results are a mixed bag.
The details: In Kentucky, both of the insurers in the state's individual market are seeking premium hikes. In Florida, nine insurers want to sell policies in the state's individual market, including seven who want to sell on its ACA exchange.
Kentucky:
- Anthem is proposing an average rate increase of just 3.5%, and is planning to expand into 17 counties where it didn't sell coverage this year.
- Take that expansion with a grain of salt, though — Anthem pulled out of 61 counties between 2017 and 2018. Moving back into 17 of them still bypasses a lot of the state.
- CareSource proposed an average increase of 19%. It said about 5% of that comes from the growth in medical costs, while the rest is a result of decisions from Washington — namely, the repeal of the individual mandate.
Florida:
- They're seeking an average premium increase of 8.8%.
- Cigna is the outlier, seeking hikes of 30%. However, Cigna is only planning to sell outside the exchange and, according to its rate filing, the company only expects 269 people to be affected by its premium hikes next year.