888-765-5400BCBSNC and the North Carolina ACA Market
Blue Cross Blue Shield NC recently released an article explaining a little of the data that has been collected regarding what North Carolina’s ACA market looks like and how that is affecting health insurance premiums all over the state. Because BCBSNC is the only company offering health plans on the Marketplace in all 100 counties of North Carolina, they have the largest share of ACA business in the state and perhaps the clearest picture of how the Affordable Care Act has affected the cost of health insurance across the board.
According to BCBSNC, new ACA customers in the state continue to use their health care benefits more than originally expected and for highly expensive medical services. In fact, according to claims data for 2014 and the first half of 2015, BCBSNC explained two important trends: First, there was no slowdown in any residual demand for medical services from new customers entering the health insurance marketplace after the induction of the ACA and second, there was a prevalence of more chronic health conditions needing medical treatment.
Although almost everyone involved in the Affordable Care Act predicted this increase in the use of the health care system and expected a strain during the first year of the ACA as more uninsured and underinsured customers received new and better coverage, no one predicted that this strain would persist as long as it has. Most projected the demand would level off by 2015, but in North Carolina and many other states, that has simply not been the case. On the contrary, there is still a continued increase in demand for more, and more expensive, medical services among those who newly enrolled in 2014 and the early part of 2015.
Furthermore, many of these new ACA customers have chronic health issues and are using pricey medical services exponentially more than predicted. In addition, some BCBSNC members who are healthier and who have historically used fewer and less-expensive services are cancelling their plans, actually removing money out of the pool collected from monthly insurance premiums. Unfortunately, no one really knows how long these trends will last and the current tax penalty in place may not be high enough to keep certain individuals from cancelling plans or choosing to remain uninsured.
In part, these are the reasons North Carolina and members of BCBSNC will likely be seeing a rate hike in insurance premiums for 2016. As Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina stated, the “goal, as always, is to offer health coverage that our customers can depend on at rates as affordable and sustainable as possible.” Being sustainable means BCBSNC can uphold, maintain and defend its product, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of NC is committed to making sure the residents of North Carolina have the coverage they need when they need it.
For more information on Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina insurance coverage, please visit our website at www.nchealthplans.com or call our toll free number 888-765-5400 and speak with one of our experienced and professional agents. CLICK HERE to apply online in 8 minutes or less.