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Affordable Care Act: Nationwide Premium Estimates Released

The Obama administration released a report containing average premiums across the nation.  Rates in most states are lower than earlier projections, but there are huge variations among states according to the Kansas Health Institute

Kansas and Texas have been strongly opposed to the new law, despite high numbers of uninsured, yet the report revealed they will have rates at or below the national average.

 “There is no clear political pattern to these premiums,” said Larry Levitt, a senior vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan research organization. (KHN is an editorially independent program of the foundation.) “Some conservative, anti-Obamacare states have lower-than-average premiums, and some pro-Obamacare states have higher-than-average premiums."

Premium prices are influenced by many factors:

  • Insurers cost estimates
  • Regional labor costs
  • Healthcare facility charges
  • Insurer competition

The Texas Tribune reported rates across the nation for plans with different levels of coverage.  Here’s how things compare across the high plains:

A complete list of state rates can be found here

If you’d like to see if you could qualify for a tax credit, you can use this  calculator