Health insurers passed along big rate increases in Minnesota's individual market for 2016, but a new report suggests premiums on the state's MNsure exchange were still relatively low.
The report from the Urban Institute says the average monthly premium on MNsure across all parts of the state for the lowest-cost "silver" plan in 2016 is $250 for a 40-year-old nonsmoker.
That's not the lowest such premium in the nation, as was the case for Minnesota during the first year of the MNsure exchange in 2014. The study finds a lower 2016 average, for example, in Utah ($231), Michigan ($237) and Pennsylvania ($245).
But Minnesota's average premium is lower than both the Midwest average ($261) and the national average ($283). On a regional basis, the lowest-cost silver plans average a lower monthly cost in the Midwest than in the Northeast, the South and the West.
People buying the lowest-cost silver plan on the exchange are paying $371 per month in North Carolina, $454 per month in Wyoming and $684 per month in Alaska, according to the study, which was conducted with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
The report acknowledges the pain that many Minnesota consumers in the individual market experienced when buying coverage for 2016, since the lowest-cost silver plans on average increased by about 26 percent. Some plans in parts of Minnesota posted premium increases of more than 50 percent, according to the report.
Broadly speaking, the Minnesota experience fits with that in other states, the Urban Institute says, since places that started out with low premiums have seen large increases.
"There is some regression to the mean; rating areas that had high premiums in 2015 relative to the national average had lower premium growth in 2016 and vice versa," the report states.
