The average Obamacare plan is projected to be more expensive this year for those who buy insurance through healthcare.gov, as open enrollment starts Sunday.
The cost for the second-cheapest silver plan will increase an average of 7.5 percent. The average increase for the same plan in 30 of the largest Obamacare markets, which represents 60 percent of enrollees, will be slightly lower at 6.3 percent.
The Obama administration, which disclosed the figures Monday, said the increases don’t take into account the advanced payments of premium tax credits used to reduce the monthly costs of health insurance.
New data indicates that next year nearly 80 percent of returning marketplace consumers could buy a plan with premiums that are less than $100 a month after tax credits in 2016, the administration said.
About seven in 10 returning consumers could buy a plan for $75 or less after taking into account the credits.
The financial data is only for the 37 states that will use healthcare.gov to buy insurance. Individual states with their own exchanges have reported different plan increases.
For instance, California’s Obamacare plan will increase by about 4 percent.
The Obama administration also touted a lot of competition for consumers, saying that more than two-thirds of counties will have three or more plan issuers.
The reason for the increases can be attributed to a myriad of factors. These factors include health insurers knowing more about their costs after two years in the Obamacare marketplace and higher healthcare costs in general, according to Larry Levitt, senior vice president for Kaiser Family Foundation.
Obama has set modest goals for the 2016 open enrollment, aiming for only about 10 million new or re-enrolled customers.
Open enrollment for healthcare.gov starts Nov. 1 and runs until Jan. 31. The enrollment dates may differ slightly for the states that run their own exchanges.
