14 Jul Increasing Cost Of Online Shopping Might Help Missouri

There is a lot of stories going around about the changes to Medicaid and their insurance providers in the state of Missouri this year. The new change has had some major impact on not only the recipients of Medicaid, but the hospitals and the providers that accept the Medicaid patients.

Missouri Exchange Overview

The state of Missouri uses the facilitated healthcare marketplace that is federally mandated. This means that most of their residents are able to enroll for their healthcare needs using the Healthcare.gov site if they are wanting to get an insurance plan through the new exchange. In 2017, it was the first time that any plans which are ACA-qualified were available through the exchange. Missouri officials had taken time to review the rates of the plans themselves before they were made available. Before 2017, the rates were reviewed through a process that was handled by the federal government. This process is still used in Wyoming, Texas and Oklahoma.

HHS Reports

From 2010 until 2015, the HHS had reported that more than 200,000 people bought insurance in Missouri through the ACA. By February of 2017, Missouri had continued to refuse the acceptance of federal funding to help expand their state Medicaid program. This meant there was going to be a gap in coverage for adults without children and those who fell below the state poverty level.

What’s In Store For 2019?

All of the insurance companies that plan to offer coverage for the year 2019 have to have their rates filed with the insurance department in Missouri by the end of July 2018. However, Medica had announced back in June that they are now planning to join in on the exchange for Missouri and in the area of Kansas City. Medica had already began offering insurance plans in Kansas earlier this year and is deciding to expand their offers over to the other side of Missouri by next year. As long as the other insurance companies decide that they are going to keep the same areas of coverage, the Kansas City area will have at least three insurers for Medicaid recipients to choose from in their insurance plans. The three insurance companies are Ambetter/Celtic, Cigna and Medica.

Lawmakers Decided Against Program

While lawmakers had considered passing a legislation to create a reinsurance program, they decided not to pass it in the end. Reinsurance is a term that refers to systems that are in place where insurance companies would be able to pass off some of their higher costs to other third-party reinsurance program members. The reinsurance program would have kicked in when claims from insurance companies reached a certain limit. Beyond that limit, the program would have payed for a percentage of the claims until it reached the next level.

The ACA had created a temporary version of the reinsurance program that lasted until 2016. In order to counter the cost of rising insurance premiums and to help stabilize some local insurance markets, many states in the country are trying to establish their own versions of reinsurance programs to give incentives to the insurance companies. The benefit of reinsurance programs is that they can help to lower the cost of premiums across the board. This also means the subsidies of the premiums are also lower. Instead of the federal government having the ability to keep the savings to themselves, states would be able to sign a 1332 waiver in order to keep their savings and use it for state purposes. The money they collect from the savings can be reimbursed into the reinsurance program to help keep it operating.

Enrollment For 2018 Lower Than 2017

Last year, a little over 240,000 Missouri residents purchased health care plans from private insurance companies during the open enrollment period. The open enrollment had ended before the new year began, which was a first for the state. Additionally, the open enrollment window for the year was about half of the length of time it was open in previous years. Still, the amount of residents that enrolled were only about half a percent less than the previous year. This was a big deal considering all of the facts.

Anthem Reducing Their Coverage In Many Counties

In September of 2017, the insurance company Anthem had made an announcement stating that they were going to be reducing the amount of coverage they offer both in and out of the insurance exchange in Missouri beginning in 2018. The previous year, they had offered many plans across the state in all counties except 30 on the western side.