Modest rate increases for some Affordable Care Act plans in N.J.

Price increases for many Affordable Care Act health insurance plans sold on New Jersey's exchange won't be as steep as those announced last week for Pennsylvania, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services data showed.

Two insurers, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey and AmeriHealth New Jersey, a unit of Independence Blue Cross, are still selling health insurance on the state's ACA exchange.

Horizon said the rates on its popular Omnia plans would increase 5.37 percent to 6.19 percent. Only its gold plans, purchased by fewer than 10 percent of exchange buyers, will have a relatively large increase, of 24.24 percent, the company said.

AmeriHealth, which is ending its platinum-tier plans, received approvals for increases of more than 50 percent for gold-tier plans. Platinum plans usually have the highest premiums, but lower out-of-pocket costs for consumers. Gold plans are the next step down. Consumers who buy the high-end plans likely have significant health-care needs.

"What's happening is we're anticipating that our platinum members will buy down into gold. You're taking platinum level costs and applying that in the gold range. That's where that's coming from," Ryan Petrizzi, vice president of consumer markets and product development for AmeriHealth New Jersey, said Monday.

By contrast, AmeriHealth has five relatively low-cost bronze-tier plans that were approved for price decreases ranging from minus-3.35 percent to minus-9.73 percent. A sixth bronze plan has not changed.

Increases for AmeriHealth's mid-range silver plans ranged from less than 1 percent to 6.1 percent.

In Southeastern Pennsylvania, where Independence is the only company selling plans on the federal exchange, rate increases range from 12.1 percent to 39.9 percent.

Rate increases are not as extreme in New Jersey as in many other states because of regulatory differences before the ACA took effect, with measures to protect consumers, Petrizzi said. "We weren't going from a market where you could decline people or you were rating based on health conditions," he said.