More evidence that the District’s health reform efforts are working emerged last Friday, when the Department of Insurance, Securities, and Banking (DISB) published final health plan prices for the DC Health Exchange. For a second time, health insurers reduced plan prices for small businesses from earlier proposals, suggesting that the transparency of the new marketplace has led to greater competition among insurers and downward pressure on prices.
Earlier this month, the District’s Dime reported that two health insurers participating on the Exchange, now known as DC Health Link, lowered their proposed prices for health plans sold to small businesses in 2014. On Friday, DISB published final rates and reported a third insurer, Kaiser Permanente, lowered small employer plan prices by an average of 4.5 percent. UnitedHealthcare, having already resubmitted lower prices earlier this summer, decreased average prices by another 5 percent.
The lower rates are evidence that the District’s decision to sell all individual and small employer health plans through DC Health Link benefits both individuals and small businesses. The District’s Dime applauds the efforts of the Health Benefits Exchange Authority to make Obamacare a reality in DC, and we hope that they continue to make decisions that increase the quality and affordability of health insurance for all residents.
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