As states begin implementing the Affordable Care Act, will they offer a range of options at prices preferable to what is available today? Chad Terhune has written this article about what California is doing. Here's an exceprt:
After weeks of negotiations, California said it has
selected 13 health plans for a new state-run insurance marketplace where
as many as 5 million people will shop for coverage next year. Officials at Covered California, the state agency implementing the federal Affordable Care Act, said Thursday that the winning bidders reflected a mix of large commercial insurers and smaller regional plans. The state also released some sample rates, illustrating how premiums will vary across health plans in this new market. In a southern
Los Angeles County region, for instance, rates for a 40-year-old person
purchasing a "Silver" plan ranged from $242 a month for Health Net Inc. to $325 per month for Kaiser Permanente. Blue Shield would charge $287 a month. … Overall, Covered California said the rates submitted for
next year's individual market ranged from 2% higher to 29% below the
average premium now for small-employer plans in the state's biggest
metro areas.The agency said the winning health plans whittled their profit margins down to 2% to 3% and negotiated lower reimbursements for hospitals and doctors to help hold down premiums.
The article said some plans were 29% lower than regional averages for small businesses. I will be interesting to see this implemented in California because all the back and forth in the national debate will be turned into hard numbers and data.