Don’t Just Stick With Your Current Health Plan; Shop Around For 2016, Study Advises
Insurance premiums could jump 15 percent next year for millions of consumers if they keep their 2015 plans, reports the Kaiser Family Foundation. KHN is an editorially independent program of the foundation.
Kaiser Health News:
Study: Health Plan Buyers Will Save Money If They Shop
You better shop around. For holiday gifts? No, for a 2016 health insurance plan on the federal marketplace, healthcare.gov. Millions of consumers who are enrolled this year could pay higher rates if they stay in the same health plan next year, according to a study released Wednesday by the Kaiser Family Foundation. (Galewitz, 11/18)
The Associated Press:
Study: To Avoid Higher Health Law Premiums, Switch Plans
The study ... looked at a type of coverage called the "lowest cost silver plan." A hypothetical 40-year-old faced an average premium of $264 for the lowest cost silver plan in 2015. If that consumer stays in the same plan for 2016, the premium would be $304, or 15 percent more. (11/18)
The Washington Post:
Rate Hikes Widespread For Popular HealthCare.gov Insurance Unless People Switch Plans
The analysis shows that premiums are escalating for 2016 in virtually all of these plans. And in nearly three-fourths of the counties where consumers can buy coverage through the federal insurance exchange, the plan that was the lowest-price option for 2015 will no longer have the least expensive premium next year. The findings by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health policy organization, reinforce a message that the Obama administration has been spreading since the Nov. 1 start of the third year's enrollment period under the Affordable Care Act: Consumers risk insurance-premium sticker shock unless they are willing to switch to a different plan. (Goldstein, 11/18)
