Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, door #2)

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

No Kings: Americans standing in the way of bad history saying “Oh, Fuck No!”

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

A tremendous foreign policy asset… to all of our adversaries.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Reality always gets a vote in the end.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Everybody saw this coming.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

You are here: Home / Anderson On Health Insurance / CSR funding and 2019 rate increases

CSR funding and 2019 rate increases

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I have long thought that the politics of appropriating Cost Sharing Reduction (CSR) payments created strong incentives for Democrats to not fund those payments without policy concessions elsewhere.  Here is the bluntest description of the political argument:

March 2018:

If CSR is not funded, the premium increases that occurred in 2018 will be baked into the baseline premiums for 2019. Those premiums are likely to increase by 15% to 20% or more due to the combination of short term plans and the pragmatic elimination of the individual mandate. Final premiums are announced a few weeks before election day. The headlines of 20% premium increases are far more beneficial to Democratic political chances than headlines that premiums are flat or declined by 2%.

And now we are seeing rate requests from a couple of states with competitive House seats where the CSR costs are baked into the premiums:

and in Maine:

If CSR was fully funded, both of those states would be seeing average rate decreases of 5% to 10%. Policy wise that is a good thing. For the folks who don’t get subsidies that is a good thing. And the political incentives would allow Republican incumbents to go up on the air and say the following:

‘After years of premium increases on you, President Trump and the Republican Party got a 10% decrease… what a deal, we can do healthcare…”

And yes, the reason why there was a huge premium spike in 2018 was due explicitly to Republican policy. In a universal where CSR is appropriated after termination, I know that, you know that and almost no voter knows that. It is too arcane to explain that sabotage happened and then appropriation happened and if we look at a two year rolling average of premiums we are back on trend.

My eyes glazed over on that.

Policy is working orthogonally to political incentives with CSR and that always led me to scratch my head.

Reader Interactions

7Comments

  1. 1.

    WereBear

    And yes, the reason why there was a huge premium spike in 2018 was due explicitly to Republican policy. In a universal where CSR is appropriated after termination, I know that, you know that and almost no voter knows that. It is too arcane to explain that sabotage happened and then appropriation happened and if we look at a two year rolling average of premiums we are back on trend.

    They want people to think “government doesn’t work” and they get into office and it comes true!

  2. 2.

    Butch

    So since I’m somewhat unexpectedly losing my corporate health insurance this Friday I went to an insurance agent who told me the only real option was the Exchange, and I was pretty much horrified at the premium (almost $700 for a bronze plan for one person in Michigan). We’re just above the cutoff so no subsidies. Are there any options? (COBRA through the company is even worse.)

  6. 6.

    dr. luba

    @Butch: I’m 59, non-smoker, in the Detroit suburbs, and have a Bronze with high deductible ($6500) and HSA for $527 a month. BlueCare. There were cheaper plans with narrower networks that did not cover my doctors. I get my coverage through the exchange, and have no subsidy.

    Mind you, last year the same coverage was only $450 through HAP. Thank you GOP.

  7. 7.

    Butch

    I’m in the Upper Peninsula (Michigan); maybe rates are higher here? The best I could do on the Exchange was very nearly $700 for a nonsmoker. I’m looking at undewritten plans now which means I would pay the ACA penalty; they’re basically indemnity plans, as I understand it, but with pretty good coverage for about half the cost. Since I’m starting my own business after this layoff the monthly expenses are a big deal.

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