Delaware’s insurance regulator has finalized a 3 percent rate hike for plans sold on Obamacare’s exchanges next year, a decline from the nearly 6 percent insurers initially requested.
Delaware is now officially set to be one of several states to hike rates for the 2019 coverage year, a development that will expose Republicans to Democratic attacks. Democrats charge that consumers will face higher rates overall because of “sabotage” by the Trump administration, a line of criticism that will gain force as Obamacare plans finalize rates just before the 2018 midterm elections.
Delaware’s insurance commissioner announced on Tuesday that it approved a 3 percent rate hike for Highmark insurance plans sold on Obamacare’s exchanges, which are part of the individual insurance market used by people who don’t get coverage through a job or the government.
Highmark is the only Obamacare insurer in Delaware. The insurer had originally proposed a 5.7 percent rate hike for 2019.
“Even though I’m pleased that the department was able to approve a rate which is 47 percent less than the proposed rate, I recognize that this increase places an additional burden on thousands of families,” Insurance Commissioner Trinidad Navarro said in a statement.
Currently there are 20,000 state residents who use Obamacare’s insurance exchange, the state said.
Other states have seen much higher rate hikes, while others have posted slight declines in rates. For instance, Maryland’s Obamacare insurers have called for an average rate hike of 53 percent. But in Minnesota, plans are calling for a decline of five percent on average.
The research firm Avalere has said that 10 states and the District of Columbia have proposed an average rate hike of 15 percent for 2019.
Some of the insurers have argued that the Trump administration is responsible for the rate hikes. As evidence, they cite the repeal of the financial penalty for the individual mandate starting in 2019 and the Trump administration’s efforts to expand access to cheaper plans that offer fewer benefits than Obamacare plans.
Critics worry that the loss of the mandate and the cheaper plans will lead to an exodus of younger and healthier people from Obamacare’s exchanges, resulting in higher premiums. Younger people would either not get insurance because there is no financial penalty for not having insurance, or they will go for the cheaper plans.
The Trump administration has countered that the push to expand access to cheaper plans is a way for people to escape Obamacare’s high premiums.
