HONOLULU — Thousands of customers who have health insurance through the Hawaii Health Connector may end up paying less for their premiums next year.
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported that health insurance rates for nearly 13,000 individuals may rise on Jan. 1, but nearly 33,000 customers may see their premium payments decrease.
Kaiser plans to drop rates by 2.8 percent for 4,800 small businesses with 26,200 members. The Hawaii Medical Service Association is approved to cut rates by 6.2 percent for 6,527 people.
The state Insurance Division approved an average 9.2 percent rate hike for 9,600 individuals covered by Kaiser Permanente Hawaii and 3.8 percent increase for 3,141 insured through Hawaii Medical Service Association.
Insurance Commissioner Gordon Ito said the decreases are very uncommon, and that the rates reflect the market adjusting to the Affordable Care Act. Without the act’s fees, some decreases would have been larger, he said.
Health plans on the connector are rated by age rather than utilization, meaning a business with an older workforce would get higher premiums than one with younger employees.
The Hawaii Medical Service Association and Kaiser are the only insurers offering health plans for individuals on the exchange, and Kaiser is the only option for small businesses.
“What I am seeing right now is significant success both locally and nationally to keep the rates . of health care down,” said Thomas Risse, chief financial officer of Kaiser.
The Hawaii Medical Service Association expects “most of our ACA individual plan members to use fewer health services than last year, leading to a lower average rate,” said Steve Van Ribbink, chief financial officer and treasurer of the company.
