The Rates

Health Affairs Blog considers the factors that will determine the 2015 healthcare insurance rates:

The rates are coming, the rates are coming.

While there seem to be fewer “latest verdicts on the ACA,” breathlessly reported in the popular press, as we move through the second half of 2014, the filing of 2015 rate requests for individual and small group products on the health insurance exchanges offer one more piece of catnip for pundits.

Who is up? Who is down? How much? Is this the dreaded death spiral for the ACA? Or its vindication?

They point to the paucity of data that insurance companies use to make their determinations as one of the key factors in what will eventually happen. I think it’s worth keeping in mind that the paucity of data is a feature rather than a bug.

2 comments… add one
  • Guarneri Link

    Two recent studies point to the recession as the major attenuator of costs rather than ACA. The article that points this out cites a 13% increase in 2015 rates for Florida.

  • jan Link

    “the paucity of data is a feature rather than a bug.”

    The paucity of data is both deliberate and a weakness of the inept computer system. The deliberate part originates from the government regulating what data it wants to share and what it wants to hide. However, the malfunctioning IT creation continues to not serve the implementation of the ACA, as it simply can’t handle and manage the data it was hyped to do.

Leave a Comment