Late last year, when I tried to sign up for 2024 health insurance on the federal Obamacare marketplace, all the options looked expensive. That was more than what I paid in 2023.
The benefit of being an independent news publisher is that instead of just complaining to family and friends about this, you have a legitimate excuse to ask Alaska’s top insurance regulator, “What’s going on?” That’s what I got as well.
16 minutes later she replied with exactly what I was looking for. chart In fact, plans offered by my insurance company, Premera, show an average increase of 16.7% between 2023 and 2024, on top of a 19.5% increase the previous year.
it hurts. Not just me, but also about 25,000 other Alaskans who were getting their health care directly from their insurance company through the Marketplace rather than through their employer.
I wrote an article with the headline, “Monthly premiums for federal marketplace health insurance will rise 16% next year in Alaska.”
The article received wide coverage in the state, elicited some interesting responses, and made me think for a moment whether it was worth diverting some of my journalistic work to health care reporting. Medical costs in Alaska consistently rank Despite being in the highest ranks of the country, elected officials do not appear to be making any urgent efforts to change this situation.
But I let the topic go and dutifully paid $834 a month for the Blue Cross Alaska One Gold plan, bringing the annual premium alone to about $10,000 this year. I’m hoping to get some of that money back through tax credits (maybe $2,000 to $4,000), but I won’t know until I send my return to the IRS.
Going back to earlier this month, it’s once again time to choose your insurance for next year. In 2025, the monthly price for the same Gold plan will jump significantly again to $953, with an additional $1,400 in premiums added during 2025.
Even the cheapest “Bronze” level plan has skyrocketed in price, with one source saying someone my age is now paying $609 per month instead of $490. condition analysis.
The overall average growth rate for personal plans in 2025 is 16.9%, which is even higher than the previous year’s 16.4% and significantly faster than the previous year. average increase of 7% Nationally.
Marketplace insurance premiums in Alaska also increased by 18.4% between 2022 and 2023. According to the state analysis — means the total increase over the past three years is more than 50%. Insurance regulators say the number of small group plans will also surge in 2025, although large group plans will not.
Again, you may get some of your premium back at the end of the year due to tax credits. Under the current system, my premium spending is limited to 8.5% of my annual income. However, that provision of the federal health care law actually set to expire Next year: This is part of the so-called “enhanced” tax credits adopted during the coronavirus pandemic.
Without action from Congress, I and thousands of other Alaskans with private health insurance plans could face steep cost increases starting next year. Estimated average value According to KFF, a health policy research institute, it costs $1,836.
I would like to pause here for a moment to add some information. When I left my newspaper job to start Northern Journal, the biggest question mark was health care. Specifically, it was whether I could afford it.
I have a heart condition so not having insurance is not an option, but the cost of the marketplace plan was mind-boggling. So I had to guess my future income, and since the credit amount is related to my income, I knew that if I was wrong I could end up with a big tax bill.
Even with tax credits, medical costs are still a huge expense. KFF says For someone my age making $75,000 per year, the subsidized cost of an intermediate marketplace plan in 2025 would be $529 per month in Alaska, or more than $6,000 per year.
I’m sure the state’s elected officials would like to say Alaska is open for business. However, I can tell you from personal experience that such a price tag is a big hurdle for entrepreneurship.
Don’t just take my word for it. A fellow independent journalist also said the 2025 tax increase could force him to retire and find an employer that offers health insurance. Unless she can find a job with employer-provided insurance, she says her family will be paying about the same amount as a second mortgage in 2025.
Both state regulators and Premera officials said the drivers of higher premiums next year will be the same as last year: higher prices for and increased demand for services and drugs.
“The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact claims costs. “We continue to see this population in our data,” said Jim Glazko, president of Premera’s Alaska division. He disagreed with my characterization that the rate hikes amounted to a crisis and said that Alaskans are buying more and more marketplace insurance plans rather than abandoning them.
Insurance companies have become the scapegoat in the American conversation about health care – see Brian Thompson and Luigi Mangione – but it’s hard to blame them directly here. Premera, to the submitted documents In its dealings with federal regulators, the company said it lost $12 million in Alaska’s private market in 2023, and Glazko said the company priced its products “nearly break-even.” He said that he continues to do so.
So how do we solve the fundamental problem of increasing healthcare provider and drug costs as Alaskans’ health deteriorates? That’s beyond my pay grade. Identifying appropriate policy fixes is a larger task than I can undertake here.
What I can do, and continue to do, is remind my audience, which includes many state and federal elected and unelected officials, that this system is not working. That’s it. It doesn’t work for me. It’s not working for tens of thousands of other people in Alaska’s federal marketplace program. That doesn’t sit well with the countless friends and loved ones who tell me they feel dehumanized by America’s health care system. And I don’t think there’s much being done about it.
10 days ago I emailed the publicist Also for Alaska’s U.S. senators, Republicans Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, and Alaska’s incoming Congressman, Republican Nick Begich III.
Among the questions I asked was: Do you have any comments on the sharp increase faced by Alaskans receiving insurance from the Marketplace? How serious are the increases over the past three years? What policy solutions do you think could slow these increases in the future?
No response.
Anchorage-based independent journalist Nathaniel Hertz has been a reporter in Alaska for 10 years, working for the Anchorage Daily News and Alaska Public Media. Read his newsletter “Northern Journal” natherz.substack.com
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