BCBS: ACA enrollees in NC are older than expected
Published May 9, 2014
by Jason deBruyn, Triangle Business Journal, May 8, 2014.
The people who signed up for Affordable Care Act plans with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina turned out to be older than expected.
BCBSNC, the state’s largest health insurer, released for the first time on Thursday how many people signed up for Affordable Care Act through the federal marketplace exchange. The total number of those who signed up with BCBSNC and paid the first premium was 232,000.
However, the enrollees tended to be older, and therefore likely less healthy, than anticipated. For example, Blue Cross anticipated those who are 55 years and older to make up 15 percent of the enrollment; in fact, that segment makes up 29 percent of the total enrollment.
Conversely, Blue Cross expected 50 percent of the enrollees to be younger than 35, but the actual enrollment is only 32 percent in that age demographic.
Because of that, Barbara Morales-Burke, BCBSNC vice president of health policy and chief compliance officer, said that the insurer would likely have to increase premiums for the ACA plans next year. However, she stressed that Blue Cross would not increase rates for other customers, like those who buy insurance through their employer, because of the ACA enrollee mix. Of course, those rates might increase for other reasons, but Morales-Burke stressed that the rates for the ACA plans should be seen separately from other rates and will not affect insurance rates for other customers.
Of those who signed up for an ACA plan, 90 percent qualified for at least some subsidy, with the federal government covering those costs. Therefore, even if those premium rates were increased, the subsidy would cover a portion of those increases.
The numbers announced are for BCBSNC only. Coventry Health Care is the only other insurer to offer ACA plans in North Carolina, but did not release specific figures. On May 2, the federal government announced how many people signed up for ACA plans, but that figure isn’t exactly an apples-to-apples comparison to the numbers announced by BCBSNC because the federal figures count everyone who signed up, and the Blue Cross figure includes those who also paid the first premium. Morales-Burke said that roughly 85 percent of those who signed up actually paid, though said that figure could change, and does not necessarily apply to other insurance providers.
Also, the Blue Cross numbers were through May 1, while the federal numbers were only through mid April.
