In announcing the final tally for enrollment in Obamacare plans for 2019 through the exchanges, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) today also announced that health insurance plans that are not compliant with all new mandates but were “grandmothered” in 2014 are being given another year of non-compliant, grandfather status.
CMS Administrator Seema Verma
CMS today released the Health Insurance Exchanges 2019 Open Enrollment Report. With the Trump Administration’s focus on making healthcare more affordable, the report confirmswhat it calls another successful open enrollment period coinciding with a stabilization of premiums after years of substantial increases.
Specifically, the report shows plan selections in Exchange plans in the 50 states and D.C. remained steady at 11.4 million. This represents a minimal decline of around 300,000 plan selections from the same time last year. Also, as outlined in the report, average total premiums for plans selected through HealthCare.gov dropped by 1.5 percent from the prior year, the first decline since the exchanges began operations in 2014.
In addition to this report, as part of the administration’s commitment to ensure access to affordable coverage options, CMS is also issuing guidance extending for one additional year, the non-enforcement policy to allow issuers to continue certain health plans, often referred to as “grandmothered” plans, which do not meet all the many mandates and restrictions in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).
According to CMS, these plans can be more affordable for people who choose to renew coverage with them. Extending these grandmothered policies will allow consumers to maintain more affordable coverage than they would have access to through PPACA plans.
“Not extending the grandmothered plan policy would cancel plans that are meeting people’s needs today and, as a result, force people to decide between buying coverage they cannot afford on the individual market or going uninsured,” said CMS Administrator Seema Verma. “By extending the grandmothered plan policy, we are following through on our commitment to protect those left behind by Obamacare.”
While the overall number of plan selections decreased from the previous year, this decrease in plan selections could likely be attributed to a lower demand for Exchange coverage. The strong economy and growing employment likely increased the number of people with access to employer-sponsored coverage and, in turn, reduced demand for subsidized health coverage offered on the Exchanges. Another factor that reduced demand for Exchange coverage, were the roughly 100,000 people who were enrolled in the Exchange in Virginia at the end of 2018 and reported incomes that would make them eligible for the new Virginia Medicaid expansion in 2019.
Demographic data provided in the report also demonstrate stability on the Exchanges. The percent of young adults aged 18-34 who selected a plan through HealthCare.gov remained unchanged from the prior year at 26 percent. The demographic proportions by gender, race, income, and rural and non-rural also remained largely unchanged.