The cost for individual health insurance is going up in South Dakota following an executive order from the Trump Administration rolling back cost-sharing payments.
Those payments back insurance companies who lose money by insuring individuals on the exchange.
The rollback will impact the ten percent of South Dakotans who get healthcare from the exchange.
Kirk Zimmer is the executive Vice President for Sanford Health Plan.
He says Sanford revised its premium rates following the executive order. He says Sanford received approval from the state Division of Insurance for those refiled rates. He says customer will experience higher premiums.
“Those should hit the exchange fairly quickly here,” Zimmer says. “They’ve gone up as we knew they would as we talked about it as the CSR’s were eliminated. Carriers like Sanford and others that are on the exchange are still required to offer those plans, just offering them with less help from the government. So, we have to make up for that difference in the CSR payments by increasing subsidies—on premium subsidies.”
Updated premium rates were released on October 18.
A bi-partisan bill is going through Congress to reinstate those CSR payments. South Dakota Senator Mike Rounds is a co-sponsor of the legislation.
The first day of open enrollment is November first. The window to sign up on the exchange is shorter this year. Experts are encouraging customers to sign up early.
