Christus Health Plan made a mistake in New Mexico. They filed the wrong rates for their plans this year. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is allowing them to correct their rates at the next data refresh. This data refresh will be in the middle of the month. Until then, CMS and Healthcare.gov is suppressing Christus’ plans in New Mexico.
For people who want to buy Christus plans, this just means they have to wait a couple of weeks. However for people who did not want to buy a Christus plan this is an error in your favor in seven counties:
State | County | Issuer Name | SLS |
---|---|---|---|
NM | Dona Ana | CHRISTUS Health Plan | 1 |
NM | Los Alamos | CHRISTUS Health Plan | 1 |
NM | Rio Arriba | CHRISTUS Health Plan | 1 |
NM | San Juan | CHRISTUS Health Plan | 1 |
NM | San Miguel | CHRISTUS Health Plan | 1 |
NM | Santa Fe | CHRISTUS Health Plan | 1 |
NM | Taos | CHRISTUS Health Plan | 1 |
While the Christus plans are suppressed, these seven counties will see a new second least expensive Silver plan. That second least expensive Silver plan is the temporary benchmark from which all premiums subsidies are calculated. All of these counties have at least two non-Christus Silvers, so the gap between the #3 Silver and #1 Silver is bigger than the gap between the #2 Silver (including Christus) and the #1 Silver. That new gap is between $9 and $45 per month larger for a single 40 year old.
If you live in these New Mexico counties and you don’t have any preference to buy a Christus plan, you will get a better deal buying now before the data refresh than you would have based on the window-shopping information. There is a chance that the new Christus rates after the data refresh will reset the Silver benchmark lower again.
So here is an instance of an error working in the buyer’s favor, so take advantage of it if you can.
An Oops in your favor (New Mexico Edition)Post + Comments (3)