COMMENTARY Health Care Reform

Health Care Choices and Premiums: What’s Going on in West Virginia

Jul 18, 2018 1 min read

Domestic Policy Studies

Over the first three years of Obamacare, per capita monthly premiums in West Virginia increased by 105%, from $261 in 2013 to $535 in 2016.
Over the first five years of Obamacare, 50% fewer insurers offered Exchange coverage in West Virginia, from 4 in 2013 to 2 in 2018.
2019 Rate Request Submission: In West Virginia, CareSource asks for a 13.1% average rate increase for 2019, while Highmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield seeks a 15.9% average rate increase. In addition, The Health Plan of the Upper Ohio Valley, which sells coverage only off-Exchange, requests a 21.8 percent rate increase.
2019 Rate Finalized: Finalized by mid-October

Health care remains a major focus of the public discussion as premium prices rise and choices dwindle. Throughout the summer and into the fall, Obamacare insurers will announce decisions about the prices they want to charge and plans they want to offer next year, submitting them to regulators for review and approval. Research shows prices have been rising steadily since Obamacare was first implemented, more than doubling in some places because of its failed policies and regulations.

The best way to provide relief for Americans struggling under these heavy burdens is to replace Obamacare with free-market solutions that put patients and doctors—not federal bureaucrats—in charge of health care decisions and dollars.

The three states that have begun to provide this kind of relief – after being granted federal waivers from Obamacare - are seeing rate reductions. Congress should go farther and make it easy for states to take these actions.