Healthcare.gov opens for window shopping

The prices for insurance coverage available next year from the federal Obamacare exchange will be posted online starting Sunday, federal officials said, as they unveiled consumer-friendly upgrades to the digital marketplace for its third open-enrollment season. Depending on the market, consumers may see larger or smaller increases or even declines in premiums.

In one case we had, the husband – who made $40,000 a year or $3,333 per month – was given his insurance for very little ($100 a month), but his wife and child were offered insurance on his plan for $800 per month.

Changes ranged from a 12.6 percent drop in Indiana to hikes of more than 20 percent in Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon and South Carolina.

The rate increase for 2016 compares with average growth of 2 percent, from 2014 to this year, in the monthly premiums for a level of coverage that serves as the benchmark for federal subsidies that help most consumers who buy coverage under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

And while there’s still a deep partisan divide over Obamacare, with more Republicans saying they would like to ditch the law and more Democrats saying they would like it retained, more poll respondents are basing their views on personal experience with the law’s provisions. And premium tax credits that are available to people with incomes up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level – about $47,000 for one person – are benchmarked to the second-cheapest silver plan. Should I relapse, I want to make sure I can travel to IU to be treated and not have to deal with the delay of insurance appeals to get approval to go out of network. The newest insurer in the state, its digital approach to the health insurance business is the brainchild of Joshua Kushner, scion of the Kushner real estate fortune, and has the backing of venture capital firms.

The Affordable Care Act requires that most Americans get health insurance for 2016 or pay the higher fine of either 2.5 percent of annual household income or $695 per uninsured person. It groups hospitals and doctors into two “tiers”, with lower deductibles and coinsurance when members use its preferred tier. Horizon now insures more than half of the people who buy marketplace coverage.

To reach consumers, assisters are holding health care enrollment events in their communities during the open enrollment period. Consumers must sign up for a plan by December. 15 for coverage to take effect on January 1.

A “snapshot” of insurance rates, released Monday by the Department of Health and Human Services, also shows that the rate increases for next year vary substantially around the country.

At Harvard-Pilgrim, the increase in the benchmark silver plan will be approximately 5 percent, according to Beth Roberts, senior vice president for regional markets. “There’s a lot fewer uninsured in our state”. Of that total, 58 are considered to be high-deductible plans.

That figure turned out to be wrong, though, because the federal exchange upon which it was based did not include New Mexico Health Connections as an insurer.