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2018 Projected Health Insurance Changes

We wanted to give you an initial taste of changes coming for 2018 individual health insurance plans, which is about as fun as going to the dentist when you have a sore tooth.

First of all, any changes going through congress right now are not projected to impact 2018 plans since health insurance carriers have already submitted their plans and rates, but you never know. Most likely any changes would be for 2019 or 2020 plans.

2018 Overview

The carriers have told us that the core structure of their plans are going to stay the same for Gold, Silver and Bronze plans, yet the prices will be going up (as usual). Most other aspects should stay the same…except the increasing prices.

For most people the ONLY option will be buying through the WA Exchange, as those in King, Snohomish and Pierce counties won’t be able to buy a plan direct from the carrier.

The PPO plans with “In-Network” coverage outside of Washington State are going away, yet there will continue to be the Emergency Network if you have a major medical issue while out of state. For those that intend on being outside of WA for more than 6 months really should get a plan in that other state or country.

If you live in Klickitat or Grays Harbor county there are no proposed plans. If none of the carriers step in those people would be offered a plan through the WA High Risk Pool.

2018 Health Insurance Carriers

  1. Regence has decided to pull out of MOST of Washington State (will be in a few Eastern WA counties).
  2. Kaiser Permenate (formerly Group Health Cooperative) will have HMO plans only.
  3. Molina lost a lot of money in 2016. It seems like their plans will stay the same at this time yet be prepared for larger increases since they were the cheapest in 2017.
  4. Premera and LifeWise are quite expensive in 2017 and will probably be about the same upper price for 2018.
  5. AM Better will have similar narrow networks.

Below are our areas of expertise:

Gary Franke, Tamara Chandler, Justin Cross
Independent Broker
Achieve Alpha Insurance, LLC 
12507 Bel-Red Rd, Ste 103
Bellevue, WA 98005
(425) 802-2783
health@achieve-alpha.com
www.achieve-alpha.com