A Senate committee has scheduled hearings for early September over how to cushion the blow of planned double-digit rate increases on premiums for Obamacare plans in many states.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will hold a hearing Sept. 6 with state insurance commissioners and on Sept. 7 with governors, in which they will discuss how to stabilize premiums. In many states, unsubsidized premiums are set to increase by double digits following mass exits by insurers as a result of uncertainty over what’s ahead and as they wait for information about how much they will receive in federal funds. They also have left the Obamacare exchanges as they lose hundreds of millions of dollars from selling plans.
“Eighteen million Americans, including 350,000 Tennesseans – songwriters, farmers and the self-employed – do not get their health insurance from the government or on the job, which means they must buy insurance in the individual market,” said Senate health committee Chairman Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn. “My goal by the end of September is to give them peace of mind that they will be able to buy insurance at a reasonable price for the year 2018.”
Republicans failed in July to repeal and replace portions of Obamacare, and the Senate committee is turning to bipartisan solutions for Obamacare that would involve fixing the exchanges.
“It is clearer than ever that the path to continue making healthcare work better for patients and families isn’t through partisanship or backroom deals,” said Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on the committee. “It is through working across the aisle, transparency and coming together to find common ground where we can.”
The fix would be implemented ahead of the open enrollment season that begins Nov. 15 in most states, but Congress faces an even tighter deadline to come up with a solution because contracts between states and insurers are due Sept. 27.
The increases will not be felt by most people who enroll through the exchanges because the federal government picks up additional costs by contributing more to premiums. But for the roughly 9 million Americans who make more than $48,000 a year and who do not qualify for subsidies, increases may place plans out of reach. Switching to a lower-cost plan, if available, probably would mean having to change doctors and hospitals.
“Any solution that Congress passes for a 2018 stabilization package will have to be small, bipartisan and balanced,” Alexander said, citing examples such as giving states more flexibility to set rules on insurance policies and allowing them to more easily craft their own plans.
He also said Obamacare’s cost-sharing reduction subsidies, which go to insurers to pay for customers’ out-of-pocket medical expenses, should be appropriated by Congress. The funds are being paid for this month by President Trump but are not committed for the future. Without them, gross premiums are set to increase next year by as much as 20 percent, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
