HHS: Premiums for benchmark plans to decline 2 percent on average

Insurers have proposed to cut premiums for 2019 benchmark plans on the federal health insurance exchange by 2 percent nationally, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar announced yesterday. “We are announcing today that, for the very first time under the Affordable Care Act, the premium for a benchmark federal exchange plan is projected to actually drop,” Azar said during a speech in Nashville. “Insurers have proposed to cut premiums for these benchmark plans by 2 percent nationally. Meanwhile, the number of federal exchange insurers will grow for the first time since 2015.”