State Newspaper: S.C. to Get More Fed Health Choices

The S.C. Department of Insurance on Wednesday released some details on the plans to be offered in the state this year. There will be 126 different plans from five companies. Last year, state consumers could choose between 52 plans from four companies.

BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina, Blue Choice Health Plan, Consumers’ Choice Health Plan and Coventry Health Care of the Carolinas return to the marketplace, joined by Time Insurance Company, which likely will be marketed as Assurant Health, according to Ray Farmer, director of the state insurance department. Four of the companies will offered coverage statewide, while Coventry again will cover only 16 counties. 

There will be six choices for the highest cost platinum plans, 23 for gold plans, 50 for the most-popular silver plans, 38 for bronze plans and nine for the least expensive catastrophic care plans.

The companies are offering more plans “as they are getting more familiar and more accustomed to the Affordable Care Act,” Farmer said. 

The insurance department posted the various plans on its website, but the information doesn’t include rates yet. Farmer said the rates won’t be available until October. Rate changes for marketplace plans in major cities nationwide have been all over the board – ranging from an 8.7 percent increase in Nashville to a 15.6 percent decrease in Denver, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.