Health insurance premiums for plans sold under Obamacare in Arkansas are projected to decrease by an average of 2 percent next year, Gov. Mike Beebe’s office announced Tuesday.
“This is an aggregate projection, meaning that some individual consumers will see a small increase in premiums, and others will see their costs drop more than two percent,” Beebe’s office said of the new estimates from the state insurance department.
As the Arkansas Times reported last week, Arkansas’s 2015 rate filings were accidentally leaked from the insurance department. Beebe’s office said Tuesday its official projections were being released “in light of incomplete information that was inadvertently posted on an Insurance Department Web site.”
Arkansas has been a key state in Obamacare’s rollout. Beebe pioneered the “private option” for Medicaid expansion that used Medicaid dollars to pay for private plans purchased through the state’s insurance exchange. It has since been emulated by several other states. Arkansas is also a Senate battleground state where incumbent Democratic senator Mark Pryor has been attacked over the law.
The finalized 2015 rates will be released after they’ve been certified by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Beebe’s office said.