Oakland-based Kaiser Permanente, California's largest health insurer controlling 40 percent of the state's market, will charge the highest premiums on the state's health insurance exchanges, according to a report by the Los Angeles Times.
Some experts speculate the higher rates will act as a gatekeeper to filter out the sickest, newly insured patients who will use lots of care in their first year of coverage.
Kaiser's silver plan, the third-tier category on the exchanges, will cost a 40-year-old in southern Los Angeles County $325 per month in premiums, 34 percent more than the cheapest such plan from Health Net, which will charge $242.
Kaiser officials have said their network offers comprehensive care across a very wide region and that cheaper plans on the exchanges will keep that network narrow.
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