IBD bronze plan price increase - silver price down.
the GOOD news is that the silver plan prices should come DOWN!
ObamaCare shoppers in search of the lowest-cost plan may come down with a mild case of rate shock when 2015 exchange enrollment begins next month.
An examination of next year's rates in the biggest city in 15 states and Washington, D.C., reveals that the cost of the cheapest bronze plan will jump an average of 13.9% for 40-year-old non-smokers earning 225% of the poverty level ($26,260).
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In Seattle, the cost of the cheapest bronze plan, after subsidies, will soar 64%, from $60 to $98 per month, for individuals at this income level. Some other cities seeing notable gains include Providence (up 38%, from $72 to $99 per month); Los Angeles (up 27%, from $88 to $111); Las Vegas (up 22%, from $100 to $122); and New York (up 18%, from $97 to $114).
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The surge in the cost of the cheapest subsidized bronze policy could negatively impact enrollment in 2015. This year, 39% of bronze plan choosers picked the lowest-price option. One might expect that share to rise in 2015, when millions of people who passed on ObamaCare exchanges this year are expected to enroll.
While some potential enrollees may opt out because of the higher cost of bronze, some young adults may instead pick catastrophic plans available to those under 30. The latter scenario is also not great news for ObamaCare exchanges, since catastrophic plan members are grouped separately, leaving the main risk pool relatively older and more costly.
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Perhaps the clearest evidence of the benign rate environment for 2015 came from an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation . The authors found that the cost of the benchmark silver plan would fall an average 0.8% in the same 16 cities that IBD looked at.
Further, the report found that the after-subsidy cost of the second-lowest-cost silver plan would also fall an average 0.8%.
There are two big reasons for the difference. First, Kaiser researchers calculated after-subsidy premiums for someone whose expected income in 2015 is the same as in 2014, while IBD's illustration assumes income rises with inflation.
Read More At Investor's Business Daily: http://news.investors.com/politics-obamacare/101714-722269-obamacare-bronze-plan-premiums-to-jump-in-2015.htm#ixzz3GVe76VPA
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Read More At Investor's Business Daily: http://news.investors.com/politics-obamacare/101714-722269-obamacare-bronze-plan-premiums-to-jump-in-2015.htm#ixzz3GVdx6Veh
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