The state recently approved health insurance plans that will be available on Washington’s private insurance clearinghouse, WAhealthplanfinder.org. The average annual cost hike: 10.7%, with some plans increasing more than 20%.
This past summer, the state began offering Medicaid-like health insurance policies to undocumented Washingtonians, and signed up approximately 13,000 people in less than two weeks.
This week host Austin Jenkins explores those issues and more with Ingrid Ulrey, who oversees WAhealthplanfinder as CEO of the state’s Health Benefit Exchange; and, Charissa Fotinos, the director of Medicaid for the Washington State Health Care Authority.
Ulrey: “The most important and really unique thing this year is the continued availability of the federal enhanced premium tax credits, plus our state subsidy which is called cascade care savings. So those two things together have enormous power, and even though our premiums continue to increase in our market, the availability of the federal tax credit and the state subsidy means that on average, people who are eligible for both, which is a large number of people in our market, can expect a plan to cost on average 70 collars per month this year in the exchange market.”
Fotinos: “I think we’re seeing a large increase in the price of prescriptions. That said, there are some tremendously effective breakthrough amazing therapies out there, that are expensive, and may be one time or two time drugs, two million dollars to cure sickle cell disease. That’s phenomenal, right?
Fotinos on new weight-loss drugs: “I think one of the, the interesting things that, that we’re watching and we will continue to watch is every week there seems to be a new indication that research has shown these drugs are beneficial for. If that continues to be the case, and these research studies really bear fruit, that I think it will force a different conversation about this particular class of drugs.”
An in-depth discussion on health care costs and access, this week on Inside Olympia.