Hospitals

Here are the 10 most expensive insurance markets in the U.S.

These are the 10 regions of the country with the highest premiums for people buying insurance on the health law’s new marketplaces.  The ranking is based on the lowest price “silver” plan, which is the mid-level plan that the majority of consumers are selecting. The listed monthly premiums are for a 40-year-old person and are […]

By Jordan Rau on February 03, 2014

These are the 10 regions of the country with the highest premiums for people buying insurance on the health law’s new marketplaces.  The ranking is based on the lowest price “silver” plan, which is the mid-level plan that the majority of consumers are selecting. The listed monthly premiums are for a 40-year-old person and are based on rates listed on the federal and state insurance marketplaces and data collected by the Kaiser Family Foundation. (KHN is an editorially independent program of the foundation.)

These regions, created as part of the health law, range in size from a state to a single county. In each, the price of every policy has to be consistent across all counties, although the insurer does not have to offer each policy in every county. When the least expensive silver plan is not offered in a county, KHN notes the cheapest available silver plan there.

$483: Colorado Mountain Resort Region. Eagle, Garfield and Pitkin counties, home of Aspen and Vail ski resorts. Summit County premiums are $462.

$461: Southwest Georgia. Baker, Calhoun, Clay, Crisp, Dougherty, Lee, Mitchell, Randolph, Schley, Sumter, Terrell and Worth counties.

$456: Rural Nevada Esmeralda, Eureka, Humboldt, Lander, Lincoln, Elko, Mineral, Pershing, White Pine and Churchill counties.

$445: Far western Wisconsin. Pierce, Polk and St. Croix counties, across the border from St. Paul, Minn.

$423: Southern Georgia. A swath of counties adjacent to the even more expensive region. Ben Hill, Berrien, Brooks, Clinch, Colquitt, Cook, Decatur, Early, Echols, Grady, Irwin, Lanier, Lowndes, Miller, Seminole, Thomas, Tift and Turner counties.

$405: Most of Wyoming. All counties except Natrona and Laramie.

$399: Southeast Mississippi. George, Harrison, Jackson & Stone counties. In Hancock County, the lowest price plan is $447.

$395: Vermont.*

$383: Fairfield, Conn. The southwestern-most county, which includes many affluent commuter towns for New York City.

$381: Alaska.

*Unlike other states, Vermont does not let insurers charge more to older people and less to younger ones. Its ranking therefore will differ depending on the ages of the consumers.

Sources: Kaiser Family Foundation Program for the Study of Health Reform and Private Insurance; healthcare.gov; state exchanges.