It was about 10 months ago I wrote my ‘first take’ on where 2019 Health Insurance premiums were likely to come in.  It was good news and I was surprised to learn that our premiums were falling by $4K from the year before.  I called it a ‘first take’, because I wasn’t sure the benefit would actually come through.

Fortunately it has, as you can see in the chart below, after health insurance premiums and deductibles growing steadily, they finally broke this year.  The local newspapers credited it to increased competition in our state.  Historically, all insurance companies in Minnesota had to be non-profits, but for 2019 they let for-profit companies also compete.

As good as this news was, more good news just arrived in our mailbox.  It turns out that our insurer (Blue Cross Blue Shield) ended up with more money in their coffers than they budgeted last year and under the ‘ACA Medical Loss Ratio’ standard.  As a result, they were required to send us a premium rebate.

The check was for just over $3.0K from 2018 premiums.  That means that while still big, the spike we saw in premiums last year isn’t quite so big now … although $14K over $11K is still +27%, but as you can see it is down to $13K this year.

We don’t have any specific plans for the money, although given we are heading to Europe on vacation soon, I’m sure we will find some good things to spend it on!

Anyone else ever benefited from a rebate like this?

Image Credit: Pixabay