The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act saved consumers roughly $2.1 billion last year in discounted premiums due to several of the law's provisions, according to an HHS report.
HHS highlighted two provisions that hold health insurers more accountable: rate reviews and the medical loss ratio. State-based rate reviews allow states to scrutinize significant health premium rate hikes, and the MLR requires insurers to spend at least 80 percent of health premiums for individual and small group markets, or 85 percent for large group markets, on medical care. The remaining 15 or 20 percent of costs can be used toward administrative costs and profit.
HHS estimated that rate reviews saved consumers roughly $1 billion last year, and the MLR yielded another $1.1 billion in rebates and savings.
The three states that modified, rejected or withdrew rate increase requests of 10 percent or more and led to the biggest savings for consumers were Washington, New York and California.
HHS highlighted two provisions that hold health insurers more accountable: rate reviews and the medical loss ratio. State-based rate reviews allow states to scrutinize significant health premium rate hikes, and the MLR requires insurers to spend at least 80 percent of health premiums for individual and small group markets, or 85 percent for large group markets, on medical care. The remaining 15 or 20 percent of costs can be used toward administrative costs and profit.
HHS estimated that rate reviews saved consumers roughly $1 billion last year, and the MLR yielded another $1.1 billion in rebates and savings.
The three states that modified, rejected or withdrew rate increase requests of 10 percent or more and led to the biggest savings for consumers were Washington, New York and California.
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