KANSAS CITY (AP) - Missouri consumers next year will have dramatically fewer and broadly pricier choices in health insurance offerings under President Barack Obama's overhaul, an analysis for the Associated Press shows.
The county-by-county analysis by AP and Avalere Health, a consulting firm that has tracked the Affordable Care Act since its 2014 rollout, finds Missouri among eight states with only one participating insurer in most of its counties.
In 2014, 98 percent of Missouri's 115 counties had two participating insurers in the program, and this year, that same percentage of counties had at least three insurers. But the analysis shows next year, 84 percent of the counties will have just one insurer, and 14 percent will have only two.
With the three-month signup season scheduled to begin Tuesday though HealthCare.gov and state-run markets, officials emphasize even in communities with only one insurer, people can choose among different plans from that carrier. But different plans from a single insurer often have the same lists of covered drugs and the same provider networks.
Nationwide, about one-third of U.S. counties will have one health marketplace insurer in 2017 - double the number of counties with a single insurer in 2014.
Largely as a result of the Affordable Care Act, the nation's uninsured rate has dropped to a historically low level, less than 9 percent. But the program hasn't yet found stable footing, and it remains politically divisive. Insurer participation rose in 2015 and 2016, only to plunge.
Earlier this week, the U.S. government announced premiums under the Democratic president's signature 2010 health care law will spike next year, offering fodder for Republicans clinging to a 54-46 Senate majority as the Nov. 8 general election approaches.
U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, a Missouri Republican locked in a tight re-election bid, blasted the looming increases in premiums, which for some Missourian consumers will spike as much as a 40 percent: "Obamacare is a never-ending nightmare for Missouri families, and it's only getting worse."
His Democratic opponent, Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander, said in a statement that while changes "clearly" need to be made to the health care law, "the problem is that Congress has known these problems exist for years, yet they haven't addressed them."
Before taxpayer-provided subsidies, premiums for a benchmark plan will increase an average of 25 percent across the 39 states served by the federally run online market, the administration said this week. In Missouri, the premiums will soar by 44 percent in nine counties on the state's western side, with rates spiking by at least 20 percent in 68 counties.
Avalere and the AP compiled insurance marketplace data from 49 states and the District of Columbia for the analysis. That represents markets in 3,129 counties, where 12.3 million people selected plans for 2016. Only Massachusetts was unable to provide 2017 data by this week.