Kaiser Health News Talks to Joel Ario on Health Exchange Pricing Factors
"ACA Premiums Lower Than Projected, Even in Anti-Obamacare States"
Kaiser Health News
September 25, 2013 - Kaiser Health News spoke to Manatt's Joel Ario, a managing director with Manatt Health Solutions, about the factors that influenced the price of online health insurance premiums.
As reported by Kaiser Health News, rates in most states are lower than earlier projected, and 95 percent of consumers will have at least two insurers to choose from. The prices were influenced by many factors, including what insurers guess their costs will be, a region's labor costs and how much hospitals and other facilities charge. Competition between insurers is also a large factor.
Some rural states, such as Wyoming or Alaska, have fewer insurers and therefore, less competition, which could partially account for the higher prices there, said Ario.