Examining Health Insurers' Premium Rate Increases and Their Response to the Medical Loss Ratio Requirement, Round 4

With Commonwealth Fund support, the team of Mark Hall and Michael McCue has tapped new data sources made available by the Affordable Care Act to report that consumers realized more than $5 billion in savings over 2011 to 2013 as a result of the law’s medical loss ratio requirement, and that insurers attribute the majority of large premium increases to medical costs. With this new grant, Hall and McCue will update their research on health plans’ medical loss ratios and analyze rate-increase justifications given by insurers that sell in the individual and small-group markets, both inside and outside the marketplaces. This work will yield important insights for regulators and policymakers striving to improve the efficiency of insurance markets and restrain premiums.