The cost-sharing subsidies were intended to encourage consumers to “buy up,” Mahoney, senior vice president of consumer marketing at GoHealth, said in a telephone interview.
No Rejections
The law requires insurers to accept all customers regardless of their medical history or condition and provide some benefits such as free preventative care. The companies don’t want too many people signing up for platinum plans with the most-expensive premiums because those customers typically are sicker, older patients who know they will see their doctors frequently, said Brian Wright, a New York-based analyst at Monness Crespi Hardt & Co.
“So overall, the greater the percentage of enrollment in the bronze and silver plans, the better from a risk pool perspective,” Wright said in a telephone interview.
Bruce Broussard, chief executive officer of Humana Inc., said early enrollment in higher metal tiers was “greater than we anticipated,” with 25 percent of customers picking a platinum plan, and 52 percent picking silver as of Dec. 31.
Since then, they have seen members start to skew younger and pick more silver plans, representing 58 percent of their enrollments at the end of January, Broussard said in a call with analysts on Feb. 5.
In addition to the 7 percent platinum, 12 percent of the exchange selected plans through Feb. 1 were at the gold level, the HHS report showed.
Popular Plans
Joseph Swedish, chief executive officer of WellPoint Inc., which has the most plans on the public exchanges, said silver and bronze plans were the “most popular metal levels by a wide margin.” This was “consistent with expectations,” he said in a call with analysts on Jan. 29. At the end of January, WellPoint had 500,000 new members enrolled through the exchanges.
More important than what tier plan is picked, however, is who is making the selection.