Companies in Colorado's health care insurance exchange want to increase premium rates by an average of only 6 percent for individual plans -- a much smaller increase than last year's 27 percent average.
"I think consumers should feel like we're moving in the right direction. That we've come over the curve of these ever-increasing, really large increasing rates," said Michael Conway, Colorado's interim insurance commissioner.
Every Colorado county will have at least one on-exchange company selling individual health plans, was the case last year. Anthem (as HMO Colorado), Bright Health, Cigna Health and Life, Denver Health Medical Plans, Friday Health Plans, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Colorado and Rocky Mountain HMO are all returning to the program.
The state is doing its best to soften moves made by the Trump Administration to undermine the Affordable Care Act, Conway said. Most recently, the White House decided to freeze a key ACA program designed to discourage insurers from favoring healthy people over less healthy ones.
The agency will approve the rate requests later this summer.
