Health Insurers Will Pay Out $1.3 Billion Rebates, But Will You Get One?

Well, here’s the good news: health insurers will be paying out $1.3 billion (with a “b”!) in rebates this year, and there’s a good chance you could be getting one. According to two new reports, health insurers will be making the payouts for not spending enough of their health insurance premium money on actual medical care under the terms of the Affordable Care Act (or “Obamacare”).

Under Obamacare, health insurers must spend 80 to 85 cents of every health insurance premium dollar on medical care. If health insurers don’t, they have to give the money back in the form of rebates, either by issuing rebate checks of crediting member accounts. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the rebates include $541 million in the large employer market, $377 million in the small business market, and $426 million for those buying insurance on their own.

But before you make plans to start spending your rebate money, hold your horses! Only about a third (31%) of consumers in the individual market will be seeing rebates. Of the employer-based health insurance plans, about one-quarter (28%) of the small group market and 19% of the large group market will be getting rebates. And employers don’t have to pass on the health insurance rebates to their employees.

The rebates themselves will vary wildly, from $1 to $517, depending on your insurance and where you live. And consumers in Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Nevada and New Hampshire won’t be seeing any rebates at all since since those states received exemptions from the 80/85 percent rule from the Obama Administration. The states successfully argued that the health insurance companies would exit their states if they were forced to comply.

Do you think that you’ll be getting a health insurance rebate this year? Tell us about it in our discussion forum!

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4. Five Health Insurers to Stop Selling Individual Health Insurance in Indiana
5. Insurers Will Have to Justify Big Health Insurance Rate Increases… But Is That It?