In addition, two tables showing the average estimated 2016 vs. 2017 health insurance premiums by Florida county in the individual market are being provided for a family of four with an income of $53,000 and a single individual with an income of $27,000. This analysis does account for federal premium tax credits (subsidies) to illustrate overall premium costs and both examples use the selection of a Silver plan. The Silver plan is the most frequently selected plan on the Exchange because it is the only plan where qualified consumers can take advantage of cost sharing assistance, while federal premium tax credits are available to qualified consumers at all plan levels through the Exchange. The approved percentages varied by about 2 percentage points from the original May requests, with a few exceptions. The primary reasons for this are (1) companies received official risk adjustment numbers from CMS in June (2) several insurers decided to write only off-exchange policies in Florida during 2017. Aetna, who has a commitment to expand in 2018, has indicated that it will not participate in 2017. United announced before the May filings that it would not participate on the exchange for 2017. United filed and withdrew an exchange filing under a subsidiary (Harken). Humana filed for participation in only a few areas of the state but did not disclose this information publicly. All of these decisions changed office and company estimates of the risk pool that companies expect to insure. Some companies estimate that they will grow more because of the lack of participation in the exchange market by these insurers. All of these insurers continue to write either individual or group products off-exchange.
Federal review of the rate filing information has not been finalized by the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) and is subject to change. Further information can be obtained from each insurance company, the Federal Government website, the Office’s I-File Forms & Rates Filing Search System, and the Office’s Federal Health Care Insurance Reform webpage.