States Strive to Keep Individual Markets Stable

From Health Plan Weekly

During a recent panel discussion hosted by the Alliance for Health Policy on how state regulators are responding to changes in the individual health insurance market, one expert succinctly summed up what the rate-filing season has been like in recent years.

"I'm coming to appreciate after several years now of working in this area, there's no such thing as a calm and restful summer when it comes to individual market policy," said Sabrina Corlette, a research professor at Georgetown University Health Policy Institute's Center on Health Insurance Reforms.

According to Mike Kreidler, the insurance commissioner for Washington state, "we face deliberate acts to undermine what we saw as a stabilizing market in the state of Washington." Amid all the disruption, though, the state is taking deliberate steps to keep the individual market stable, he said.

For example, the state is currently in the process of adopting rules that would place restrictions on short-term policies and association health plans (AHPs), both of which the Trump administration is expanding by loosening federal regulations that govern them.

In addition, Washington state regulators are going to require that non-ACA-compliant plans make adequate disclosures to consumers so that they know what their plan entails before they make a purchase, according to Kreidler.

Robert Morrow, associate commissioner of life and health for the Maryland Insurance Administration, said his state is also restricting short-term and AHP plans. Maryland’s chosen vehicle is Senate Bill 387, which, among other provisions, requires AHPs to operate under the same rules as the small-group market plans in the state, according to Murrow.

Corlette, though, said she doesn't think state regulations — or consumer vigilance — will be enough. An analysis that her department conducted found very few states require short-term plans to submit forms and rates to regulators for review on an annual basis.

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