To Curb Rising Health Insurance Costs, Some States Try ‘Reinsurance Pools’

[Peter1469]

To Curb Rising Health Insurance Costs, Some States Try ‘Reinsurance Pools’

I believe this was done prior to Obamacare. It is a good idea.

A couple of years ago, the health insurance exchange in Minnesota – MNsure – was in deep trouble. Health insurance premiums for individual policies had shot up by as much as 67 percent, among the steepest increases in the country. Insurers were abandoning the market, leaving 116,000 Minnesotans with scant choices.

The Minnesota Legislature offered a solution: a $271 million, publicly funded reinsurance pool that would help health insurance companies pay the most expensive medical claims, thereby lowering overall insurance premiums. The hope was that backstopping the insurers would stabilize the market and halt the rocket-like rise in premiums.



So far, so very good. In its first year, the reinsurance pool has performed even better than expected. According to the Urban Institute, 2018 premiums offered on MNsure not only didn’t increase, they fell by 15 percent.



Minnesota’s peers are paying attention. The Gopher State is one of four states trying to calm roiling health insurance markets by creating state reinsurance pools – even as actions by Congress and the Trump administration continue to create uncertainty in the health insurance industry.

[roadmaster]

So far, so very good. In its first year, the reinsurance pool has performed even better than expected. According to the Urban Institute, 2018 premiums offered on MNsure not only didn’t increase, they fell by 15 percent.

Good deal