Every year the insurance companies participating in the Indiana Individual Health Insurance market must submit their rates and plan designs to the Indiana Department of Insurance for approval.
Any Hoosier who has had to purchase health insurance in the Indiana Individual Health Insurance market know that we have only a few carriers offering coverage in the last few years. This has bee a point of frustration from network access and cost on premiums and out of pockets. With the impact of COVID, we have seen many Hoosiers lose their employer-sponsored insurance benefits, leading them to the individual market.
For 2021, we have just three health insurance companies participating in the Indiana Indiana Individual Health Insurance market:
- CareSource Indiana Inc.
- Celtic Insurance company (MHS/Ambetter)
- Anthem Insurance Companies, Inc.
CareSource offered health insurance in all 92 Indiana counties in 2020 and will continue in 2021. They have requested an average rate increase of 4.30% for their 2021 plans. They will offer 3 Bronze, 6 Silver, & 2 Gold plans.
Celtic/ Ambetter- Will offer coverage in all 92 Indiana counties, and the average requested rate increase is 14.30%. They will offer 4 Bronze, 16 Silver, & 4 Gold plans on the exchange.
Ambetter is also going to offer off-exchange plans in 2021. This is worth noting as these plans may cost less than plans on the exchange. Off-exchange, they will offer 12 silver plans and 4 gold plans in all 92 Indiana counties.
Anthem is going to offer Indiana Individual Health Insurance plans in 8 counties, which is an expanded form 2020. Off-exchange, Anthem will offer a 1 catastrophic plan in Benton, Jasper, Newton, Warren, and White Counties.
On-exchange Anthem will offer 2 bronze, 1 silver, and 1 gold plan in Lake, LaPorte, and Porter counties. With estimated 700k residents of these three counties, this is Anthem return to the individual exchange market. The cost of Anthem plans higher than CareSource and Ambetter, but depending on which anthem offers, this could be a solution. It would a surprise if Anthems offers their PPO network, but instead, their HMO network called Health Sync.
We hope to have all plans approved and released by the middle of October.
