Premiums will go up between 7 and 15 percent for 2017.
New Jersey Healthcare Rates Rise Again
Here’s a sentence New Jersey
business owners don’t typically hear about their rising costs: It could be
worse.
Last month, the insurance companies
participating on the state’s Affordable Care Act exchange announced new premium
rates for 2017, and they have an average increase of 7.56 percent. While yet
another increase to healthcare costs is certainly not welcome for New Jersey’s
beleaguered small businesses, the rates are thankfully lower than neighboring
states, New York (17 percent) and Pennsylvania (23.6 percent), as well as the
national average (10 percent).
However, Oxford Health Insurance, a
subsidiary of UnitedHealthcare, requested a staggering increase of 32.3 percent
for an individual plan offered outside the state’s health insurance exchange,
which is triple the increase that was requested for the same plan in 2015.
Oxford Health is withdrawing from the New Jersey exchange marketplace, but
staying in the individual market in order to offer small group plans. For small
group plans, the rate hikes were less than 15 percent.
Remember: Open enrollment begins
Nov. 1 and ends Jan. 31, 2017. For coverage that begins Jan. 1, 2017, you must
apply by Dec. 15.