Which healthcare plans are more affordable?
Trinity Health has unveiled a plan to raise its prices by 5 percent for the first year of the health insurance expansion, but its CEO says that will be balanced by raising premiums for its own customers.
In a statement Tuesday, the health care company said it would raise premiums by 5% in 2018, but would offer no further details.
The announcement comes just days after the company said that its 2017 plans were the lowest in its history.
But CEO John B. Myers said Trinity’s 2017 plans are the lowest of any health insurer in the nation, with plans on the average going for $10,000 a year, up from $5,600 in 2018.
Myers also said the company is working to raise prices by 20 percent in 2018 for some of its other health plans.
He did not offer a specific figure, but said Trinity will not offer new plans until the second quarter of 2019.
Trinity said its 2017 plan, the Affordable Care Act-compliant Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, covers about 9 million people and was approved by the state’s Department of Insurance and a panel of independent actuaries.
The Blue Cross plans are currently offered through a network of more than 4,000 participating insurers, with most of those participating insurers not participating in the health plan.
But, as of the third quarter, there are at least eight insurers offering Blue Cross policies.
“We’ve done an amazing job with this plan, and we’re going to keep doing that,” Myers said.
The company said there will be no additional hikes to prices in 2019, but that it would provide more detail about what that would mean for other plans.
The average Blue Cross plan for people who have coverage through a Blue Cross health plan cost $14,929 last year, according to the Blue Cross website.
The median Blue Cross monthly premium for enrollees with coverage through an Anthem Blue Cross was $539 in the third and fourth quarters of 2017.
Myers is a former chief executive officer of the American Medical Group and had been working as the company’s president and CEO since May 2017.
The CEO said he was confident that Trinity would be able to provide a better value for its customers.
He added that the company was working to lower its prices, as it had for several years.
“I think we’ve made a lot of progress on that front,” Myers told Fox Business Network.
“The Blue Cross group will continue to drive the industry forward in a way that keeps costs down for consumers, and also drives efficiency for the business.
That’s the right way to go, and it’s the path that Trinity is on.”