Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf signed into law a bill to establish a state-run health insurance exchange for Affordable Care Act (ACA) individual and small group plans. The new law also mandates the creation of a new health reinsurance program.
Gov. Wolf believes that House Bill 3 will increase access to affordable health insurance and save money for the state and taxpayers.
Since the implementation of ACA in 2010, Pennsylvania depended on the federal health insurance exchange. The federal government is charging insurers a 3.5 percent fee on the monthly premiums paid by ACA enrollees to cover its expenses in operating the health insurance exchange. The Governor’s office estimated that Pennsylvania insurers paid a total of $98 million in fees this year.
Starting next year, the fee is expected to decline to 3 percent, which will equate to around $88 million for Pennsylvania insurers.
A big step towards making health insurance affordable for Pennsylvanians
In a statement, Gov. Wolf said, “This bill is a huge step toward making health insurance affordable and effective for all Pennsylvanians. It’s pretty rare for a program to come along where everyone pays less, but that’s exactly what this does.”
