A new HHS analysis found individual health plan premiums have doubled since 2013, the year before various market reforms were enacted under the ACA.
A report by the Office of The Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation found premiums for individual health plans were 105 percent more in the 39 states using HealthCare.gov in 2017 compared to 2013. The agency also found the average monthly premium for individual health plans in 2017 was $477, compared to $232 in 2013.
The ASPE analysis used 2013 medical loss ratio data and 2017 CMS Multidimensional Information and Data Analytics System data to compare premiums. In a Health Affairs blog post, Timothy Jost, JD — a health law expert and emeritus professor at Washington and Lee University School of Law in Lexington, Va. — wrote while HHS acknowledged the data sources are not "strictly comparable," the report focuses on premiums and not what the plans cost policyholders. The majority of ACA health plan enrollees qualified for subsidies under the ACA.
Mr. Jost also wrote health plans were much different before the ACA was enacted, and "more importantly, individual market coverage before 2014 often failed to cover many of the benefits that insurers must currently cover under the essential health benefits." ASPE noted in its report the "changing mix of enrollees and adverse selection pressure has likely been a significant cause of the large average premium increases in the individual market over this four-year period."