In six months Oregon households and employers will be hit with a major new round of cost hikes for their health coverage, currently proposed at 17%.
It will be the second year in a row Oregonians face major price hikes for their health insurance, with new monthly premiums hitting in January for many households and employers. While many qualify for reduced premiums, those subsidies shrunk after Republicans in Congress declined to renew a pandemic-era law increasing them.
Commercial health insurers last week submitted their proposed premiums for individual policies in Oregon as well as their small group rates that are offered to businesses of 50 or fewer, kicking off a review process that will include public hearings.
In the individual market, in which people not on Medicaid can buy their own coverage, insurers want to boost their premiums by between 11% and 25%. Those are just averages, however — some people could see their premiums jump by more than a third.
That’s on top of the hefty rate hikes that Oregonians saw kick in this past January, which on average tallied about 11% across insurers.
The proposed rate hikes for 2027 would not go into effect until Jan. 1, and first they need to be reviewed and approved by the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services.
During the open enrollment period that begins on Nov. 1, consumers will have a chance to shop around and consider reducing their coverage before the hikes kick in. They also could qualify for income-based subsidies through the Oregon Health Insurance Marketplace.
However, Oregonians in the individual market will have fewer choices than they had in the past due to the decision of PacificSource to pull out of the individual market and Providence Health Plans decision to largely cease operations.
Providence and PacificSource currently cover nearly half of those in the individual market, so later this year 48,000 households will need to find new plans — and potentially a new provider to avoid costly out-of-network charges.
The bright spot? For the second year in a row, the rate hikes proposed in Oregon are less on average than those proposed in Washington state. There, 13 insurers have filed for an average overall increase of 22%.
Last year, the average increase of 11% in Oregon’s individual market was far better than the national average of 18%.
Businesses also facing hikes
Insurers also want to raise their rates in the small group market, in which businesses of 50 employees or fewer can buy coverage for their employees, with a similar average jump of 17%.
Rates for large employers are not made public, but generally mirror trends in the rest of the health insurance market, experts say.
The Department of Consumer and Business Services is hosting an online public meeting about the proposed 2027 health insurance rates at 2 p.m. Monday, July 13, to gather public comment. A second meeting may follow. Information about how to submit comments will be posted at oregonhealthrates.org.
