Indiana health insurers will file their 2018 rates this week for the Affordable Care Act marketplace, but uncertainty about the future of health care reform may play into price and availability for the roughly 150,000 Hoosiers in the system.
Indiana has four insurers on the ACA's individual marketplace. This year's average rates for Hoosiers are slightly lower than 2016. But insurance companies seem most worried about the future of cost-sharing subsidies as they consider their 2018 rates. The subsidies are seven billion dollars a year to help offset the cost of plans insurers offer to low-income Americans.
Former Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS head Andy Slavitt cites a number of letters to Indiana Democratic U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly from insurers worried about the future.
"Rushing to repeal the bill, actively undermining the insurance market resulting in very large proposed increases in 2018 relative to what they would otherwise be," Slavitt says.
Another concern is providers leaving the market. Indianapolis based Anthem announced this month it will leave the Ohio marketplace. And current CMS chief Seema Verma says her agency predicts more insurers dropping out. She calls it a "failing report card for the exchanges."
At the same time, insurer Centene announced plans to expand in Indiana.