Will Mass Unmerge Insurance Marketplace Because of ACA?

I have written numerous times about the impact that the ACA will have on small businesses in Massachusetts, and the predicted “extreme premium increases.”

According to a recent InsideHealthPolicy.com story, the state is discussing unmerging the individual and non-group markets to avoid this unintended consequence of the ACA.

States had to let CMS’ Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight know by Friday (March 29) if they plan to merge their small group and individual insurance markets, with state sources and policy experts indicating that the vast majority of states will keep the markets separate, at least in the first year. Merging the two markets would create more complexities and potential market destabilization during an already difficult implementation process, sources suggest.

A source in Massachusetts, which merged their markets upon implementing its reform legislation in 2007, says stakeholders are in serious discussions about reversing course — at least for a limited time — if the administration does not allow the state to maintain existing rating factors beyond those related to family-size, tobacco use and geographic areas.

So much for state flexibility from HHS.

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