Insurers report to Congress that ACA payment rates top 80 percent

Testifying before Congress this week, officials with several of the nation’s largest insurance companies said that more than 80 percent of people who signed up for coverage through insurance marketplaces have paid their premiums  (Source: “Health insurers: Payment rates above 80 percent,” Associated Press via Washington Post, May 7, 2014).

Aetna reported payment rates in “the low- to mid-80 percent range;” Wellpoint said the rate was as high as 90 percent for those whose premium had come due; the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association said 80 to 85 percent; and the Health Care Service Corporation, which sells Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in five states, pegged the rate at 83 percent or above. The figures were in line with what individual insurers have said on earnings calls with analysts and elsewhere in recent weeks.

Wednesday’s hearing was called in the wake of the release of a report by Congressional Republicans last week finding that as of mid-April, only 67 percent of people who’d signed up for health plans actually had paid their first month’s premium.  But the GOP report didn’t take into account a surge of sign-ups as the health law’s first open enrollment period drew to a close at the end of March. Many of those late sign-ups had not been due to make their first montly premium payment yet.