Obamacare’s benchmark silver insurance plan will increase an average of 7.5%

By Money Times

Oct 29, 2015 08:37 PM EDT

Obamacare premiums for the benchmark silver insurance plan will increase by an average of 7.5 percent next year.

CNN Money writes that the Department of Health and Human Service reported Monday that the increase will be imposed in 37 states through the federal Obamacare exchange.

The benchmark silver plan is the lowest cost plan that calculates the premium subsidies. Silver plans are the most common packages in the Obamacare health exchange. About 70 percent of insured are enrolled in this package. These plans pay for 70 percent of the health care cost. This helps reduce the out-of-pocket charges.

The Daily Signal reported that The Heritage Foundation senior policy analyst Drew Gonshorowski said the condition on the premium increase this year is very diverse.

"The [7.5 percent] hides that there is some bad news here," Gonshorowski said. "Very few people, or very few places in the exchanges, are actually seeing premium decreases, so far. A lot of the increases are pretty big."

According to Bloomberg, the premium data that was recently released is just one of the factors that individuals must consider when shopping for coverage. Insurance industry consultant Robert Laszewski encouraged people to be mindful of what doctors and hospitals cover and how much out-of-pocket fees they should pay when they get sick.

Meanwhile, the report from HSS shows that Oklahoma will have the largest increase with 35 percent for the premium on the benchmark plan. Other states that will have bigger increase are Alaska, Montania, and New Mexico, at 25 percent each.

The government figures show that Indiana will get the largest drops in premiums with an average of 13 percent on the benchmark silver plan. Meanwhile, the benchmark silver plan premiums in Maine, Ohio, and Mississippi will also decrease.

Open enrollment for the plan will start on November 1. HHS officials last week announced that there will be a series of improvements to the healthcare.gov to make this year's enrollment more seamless.

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