TMCnet News
Health Plans Project 2017 Premiums to Increase by 6.8% for Group Commercial Plans and 22.3% for Individual Commercial PlansHealth plans are expecting 2017 premium rates to increase by 6.8% for Group Commercial plans, while growing by 22.3% for Individual Commercial Plans. For Group plans, this growth is 0.4 percentage points lower than their expectations for last year. For Individual plans, growth expectations are higher by 11.4 percentage points. Individual members include all who purchase insurance individually, including those not served on exchanges. Medicare and Medicaid membership is excluded. Anticipated premium rate increases after the effect of buy-downs for Group and Individual plans is 5.3% and 19.7%, respectively. Compared to last year's survey, the growth for Group plans is expected to be relatively stable, while higher by 11.2 percentage points for Individual plans. We define a buy-down as a change i product design to achieve a lower premium. For plans participating in this survey, we infer that overall medical trends are projected to increase by 6.2% for Group plans and 13.6% for Individual plans. This is based on their anticipated MLR decline for Groups of 0.5 percentage points and a decrease of 6.0 percentage points for Individual plans. We estimate an increase in consumer cost sharing to be 10.1% for Group plans and 27.8% for Individuals. Fifty-three plans serving an estimated 17 million people enrolled in health insurance responded to this year's survey. This is Sherlock Company's twenty-second annual survey of premium pricing trends. Sherlock Company (www.sherlockco.com), based in North Wales, Pennsylvania, provides informed solutions for health plan financial management. Since its founding in 1987, Sherlock Company has been known for its impartiality and technical competence in service to its clients. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161104005949/en/ |
