On Wednesday, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC) announced it has requested lower rates for individual customers and business customers using Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace health insurance plans.
BCBSNC says it recently requested an overall average rate decrease of 5.2% for 2020 ACA plans offered to individuals, and an average rate decrease of 3.3% for ACA plans offered to small businesses with one to 50 employees.
Company representatives said these rate decreases would provide a $238 million reduction in health care costs for its customers in 2020.
BCBSNC said this is the second year in a row it has filed an average rate decrease for individual ACA members, and said its average rate reduction for individual members has totaled nearly 10% over the last two years.
BCBSNC’s average rate filing for its 1-50-employee small business customers has been “zero percent or lower for seven of the last eight quarters,” according to the company.
BCBSNC said it currently serves more than 435,000 individual ACA members, and has more than 8,500 small business ACA customers representing nearly 70,000 members.
Individual premiums will be available in October. Open enrollment begins on November 1, 2019 and ends on December 15, 2019.