Health Payer Intelligence interviewed Manatt’s Cindy Mann, a partner with Manatt Health, for an article about the how the Affordable Care Act has been beneficial for Americans, as well as what problems need to be fixed. Mann told the publication that the Affordable Care Act has contributed to high-deductible health plans and more out-of-pocket costs.
“Costs have been controlled by some degree by payers increasing the exposure to out-of-pocket costs by coverage,” Mann said. “We’re seeing some amount of initial proposals on the exchange for premiums to rise. We’re seeing some exchanges where the proposals don’t show a significant increase in the premium. I think what we’re going to see next year among premiums on the marketplace will probably be mixed.”
“Different markets will have different pricing strategies. Lots of different factors are going on. Certainly, in the Medicaid program, the overall cost of the program is going up because it’s covering many more people, but the cost per enrollee has been averaging a little over 3 percent, which is modest,” she concluded.