A small number of Louisianians who buy their own health-care coverage could see significant changes in their premiums as soon as October, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana executives said Wednesday.
The vast majority of the 2 million Louisiana residents who are now commercially insured will likely pay less or only slightly more under the provisions of the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act signed into law in 2010, according to the company’s projections.
But Blue Cross officials estimated that among its nearly 1 million Louisiana customers, about 21,280 households that currently purchase insurance without going through an employer could experience premium increases of 15 percent to more than 70 percent.
That affected group accounts for about 1.3 percent of the state’s 1.6 million households according to U.S. Census figures, but it is about 28 percent of the 76,000 households that buy their insurance directly from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana.
Mike Reitz, CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana, told reporters during a briefing Wednesday that he anticipates hearing from those customers in the next several months.
“There’s going to be a lot of noise out there,” Reitz said. “A lot of people who felt at one time that the Affordable Care Act was going to present to them some true options that were going to remove some of the pressure of the insurance from them and their families’ budgets. But in fact, there is going to be a challenge associated with that.”
Reitz attributed some of the increase to new taxes and fees he said would be borne by carriers, employers and individuals. But company executives also cited changes that require insurers to offer richer benefits packages to people who until now opted for more bare-bones coverage, for example, as well as rules that forbid them to charge sicker customers more than healthier customers.
Moriba Karamoko, director of the Louisiana Consumer Healthcare Coalition, said he was skeptical of the projections. He said it’s impossible to discuss such rate changes without explaining the specifics of the company’s individual products.
“Premium increases have been happening for years now,” Karamoko said. “It’s a bit disingenuous to attribute premium increases to the Affordable Care Act.”
Brian Small, senior vice president and chief actuary for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana, profiled five types of individual insurance customers who could be affected as thousands of uninsured people enter the marketplace beginning Oct. 1.
That’s when the federal government will make available an online exchange where people who have no coverage now — about 20 percent of Louisianians — can shop for coverage that meets the requirements of the federal law.
Those with household incomes of 100 percent to 400 percent of the federal poverty level will qualify for subsidies to help offset the cost of required insurance coverage, including people who are currently insured.
By way of example, Small said a 64-year-old woman who has health issues and an income of $43,000 now might experience a healthy rate reduction of about 50 percent under the new plan. That’s because her premium would drop from $8,240 to about $7,630 and her income makes her eligible for a $4,155 subsidy.
Meanwhile, a healthy 26-year-old man with an income of $33,000 might experience a 60 percent rise in insurance expenses because, even though he is eligible for a $75 subsidy, his premium might rise from $1,881 to $3,088.
That said, the company estimates that about 45 percent of its customers will be eligible for a subsidy because their household incomes lie within that range — roughly $12,000 to $45,000 for an individual to $95,000 for a family of four.
“Most Blue Cross customers will see no impact after subsidies take effect,” Small said.
As happened in many Republican-led states, Gov. Bobby Jindal announced that Louisiana would not establish a state-based insurance exchange as the law allowed. The federal government plans to open the exchange Oct. 1 in its place.
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