Received a letter that my marketplace insurance (HealthFirst NY) filed for a 27% increase in 2018.
Are these granted? Will it really go up that much? or it's an arbitrary number?
Actual increase might be less than filed for, though it is likely to be significant.
When NYS set up their exchange, they used Oxford as a benchmark for all insurers to compare to.
There's no free lunch. All insurers operating in the same market will have very similar costs. Sometimes, they will underprice their offering in order to gain market share, but when they file their rates, they need to justify everything from an actuarial standpoint. Their actual experience cannot be ignored (unlike unrealistic assumptions - where everyone can pretend), which is why we see the double digit increases.