Marketplace health care premium drops by 1 percent

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The Delaware Health Insurance Marketplace will see a 1 percent decrease in rates, despite the added costs of coronavirus testing and treatment.

Delaware Insurance Commissioner Trinidad Navarro announced the  decrease negotiated by the department with Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield Delaware.

Marketplace (Obamacare)  rates are available to small business owners, people between jobs or those without coverage. Rates remain high. However, subsidies are available to many with lower incomes.

Highmark, which is the only insurer offering  Affordable Care Act health plans in Delaware, initially submitted a reduction of 0.5 percent. The Commissioner’s final rate announcement comes after an independent actuarial review and public comments on the insurer’s proposal.

In 2019, after successfully applying for a waiver that allows reinsurance of rates,  the state was able to negotiate an average rate decrease of 19 percent for 2020 plans. 

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After the rate reductions for the 2020 plan year, enrollment spiked by 6.3% during the traditional enrollment period. As of the start of the year, nearly 24,000 Delaware residents participated in marketplace-offered plans. While the federal government has not opened enrollment in response to COVID-19, residents losing employer-sponsored health coverage due to the economic impacts of the pandemic may qualify for special enrollment outside of the traditional enrollment period.

Open enrollment for the Marketplace takes place between November 1 and December 15 each year. However, residents may qualify to enroll or change plans based on special circumstances, such as a loss of qualifying health coverage, change of income, becoming a parent, and several other qualifying factors. Click here to determine if you qualify for special enrollment.

The news of the second consecutive rate decrease comes as the department is implementing other consumer cost-of-care protection efforts, including regulating Pharmacy Benefit Managers to control and reduce medication cost, and continuing efforts to create an Office of Value-Based Healthcare Delivery to focus on primary care affordability and availability.

The proposed rate decrease does not apply to Medicare, Medicaid, or those with group or individual policies outside of the Marketplace.

The program has continued as the Trump Administration goes to court to repeal the Affordable Care Act. So far, no replacement program has been announced should the court effort prove successful.

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