MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.,
Oct. 17, 2018 /PRNewswire/
-- Last week the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
(CMS) released a statement that 2019 Affordable Care Act (ACA)
health plan prices will drop by 1.5% for silver plans (SLCSP), the
middle tier of ACA plans. Previous years saw significant increases,
with premiums doubling. Even with the 1.5% decline in SLCSP rates
for 2019, American consumers have been dealt a net rate increase of
69.2% from 2016 to 2019. Price stabilization is a key factor in
measuring the effectiveness of the ACA.
With good news there is bad news. The bad news is that the
average silver plan premium in 2018 was $536.94 for a 40-year-old female non-smoker, so
it's not much relief for those Americans priced out of the ACA
market. An analysis of 2018 ACA exchange plan affordability found
that a family of three earning the average U.S. household income,
with parents age 30 and one child, would not be able to find an
affordable Silver plan in any county. The 1.5% decline in rates in
the coming year will likely not provide much relief. In comparison
a recent analysis of short term health insurance plans for a
40-year-old female non-smoker on AgileHealthInsurance.com found an
average monthly premium of $199.93
and this included plans with much lower deductibles than the
average ACA silver plan. Although short term health insurance does
not include the same breadth of benefits as ACA plans, they provide
medical coverage for illnesses and injuries and include services
such as emergency room, hospitalization, doctors, specialists,
labs, and other important benefits.
In 2019, there will be a wide variance in costs between states
as health care prices remain largely based on locality. For
example, those in the state of Washington will see an average premium
increase of 13.8% for ACA marketplace plans while those in
Iowa will see their first rate
decrease for these plans with the state average premium dropping by
7.9%. In the short term health insurance market, there will be
great variance as well with the average monthly premium for a
40-year-old female being $146.24 in
Kansas, but $331.95 in Florida.
Both the number of ACA and short term health insurance products
have increased this year. Gavin
Southwell, CEO of AgileHealthInsurance.com's parent company,
HIIQ, commented, "American consumers want choices when it comes to
purchasing health insurance. Lower ACA premiums are a win for
everyone. So is the expansion of short term health insurance to 12
month durations. With so many options, consumers can explore,
compare, and find the right plan for their needs and
budget."
Agilehealthinsurance.com offers thousands of short term health
insurance and Obamacare alternative plans with varying levels of
benefits, deductibles, and monthly premiums.
AgileHealthInsurance.com was launched in 2015 to
educate consumers on the availability of private market health
insurance products that are alternatives to Affordable Care Act
(Obamacare) plans. Today AgileHealthInsurance is the largest
distributor of short-term health insurance, providing a fast,
online process for purchasing these plans. Short-term health
insurance is a flexible and low-cost major medical insurance for
individuals without expensive pre-existing health conditions. It is
not Obamacare. Short-term health plans offer consumers the
flexibility to choose health plans with the benefits that matter
most to them and combine these benefits with broad provider
networks. Additional information about AgileHealthInsurance can be
found at www.AgileHealthInsurance.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
AgileHealthInsurance.com is a Silicon Valley-based technology
company and independently managed division of Health Insurance
Innovations, Inc. (NASDAQ: HIIQ). This press release contains
"forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the U.S. Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking
statements are statements other than historical fact, and may
include statements relating to goals, plans and projections
regarding new markets, products, services, growth strategies,
anticipated trends in our business and anticipated changes and
developments in the United States
health insurance system and laws. Forward-looking statements are
based on our current assumptions, expectations and beliefs are
generally identifiable by use of words "may," "might," "will,"
"should," "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "believes,"
"estimates," "predicts," "potential" or "continue," or similar
expressions and involve significant risks and uncertainties that
could cause actual results, developments and business decisions to
differ materially from those contemplated by these statements.
These risks and uncertainties include, among other things, our
ability to maintain relationships and develop new relationships
with health insurance carriers and distributors, our ability to
retain our members, the demand for our products, the amount of
commissions paid to us or changes in health insurance plan pricing
practices, our ability to integrate our acquisitions, competition,
changes and developments in the United
States health insurance system and laws, and our ability to
adapt to them, the ability to maintain and enhance our name
recognition, difficulties arising from acquisitions or other
strategic transactions, and our ability to build the necessary
infrastructure and processes to maintain effective controls over
financial reporting. These and other risk factors that could cause
actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied
in our forward-looking statements are discussed in HIIQ's most
recent Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and
Exchange Commission (SEC) as well as other documents that may be
filed by HIIQ from time to time with the Securities and Exchange
Commission, which are available at www.sec.gov. Any forward-looking
statement made by us in this press release is based only on
information currently available to us and speaks only as of the
date on which it is made. You should not rely on any
forward-looking statement as representing our views in the future.
We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking
statement, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to
time, whether as a result of new information, future developments
or otherwise.
View original
content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/agilehealthinsurancecom-2019-affordable-care-act-rates-make-short-term-health-insurance-plans-more-attractive-300733111.html
SOURCE AgileHealthInsurance.com