Colorado’s reinsurance program — which would lower health insurance premiums for some by using state and federal dollars to help insurance companies pay their most expensive claims — is starting to take shape, but it still faces a significant hurdle: winning approval from the federal government.
State regulators last week submitted an application for the feds’ OK. The federal government has several months to review the application and make a decision, but state Insurance Commissioner Michael Conway is hoping for a faster timeline with final word coming by the end of summer. He’s so confident of the fast turnaround that he has asked insurance companies to include estimated savings from the program in one set of proposed 2020 rates that they will submit to the state for review next month.
The reinsurance program would benefit those in the individual market — i.e. roughly 8% of people in Colorado who buy health insurance on their own instead of getting it through their employer. And Conway is finalizing details for precisely how the program will work.
But, based on the state’s application and a set of emergency regulations Conway has proposed, we have a pretty good idea already of what it will look like. Here are five numbers to tell the tale.
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