A new report from CMS revealed consumers have collected over $2.4 billion premium rebates since 2011. In 2014, nearly 5.5 million consumers received almost $470 million in rebates.
Here are three things to know about the report.
1. The rebates are credited to the Medical Loss Ratio rule. Part of the Affordable Care Act, the MLR rule — also known as the 80/20 rule — requires insurers in individual markets to spend at least 80 percent of their premium on healthcare and healthcare-related activities as opposed to overhead costs. Large group market insurers are required to spend 85 percent of premium dollars on healthcare.
2. HealthCare.gov CEO Kevin Counihan shared his thoughts on the report. "Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, there are now programs in place to give consumers maximum value for their premium dollar," said Mr. Counihan. "We are pleased that the tools created under the healthcare law are working as intended to give consumers access to high-quality health insurance coverage and keep cost affordable."
3. The report shows more consumers are receiving more value for their premium dollars. The change is due to premium rates being set to reflect insurers' spending on healthcare. The number of consumers in plans that owe refunds sank from 6.8 million in 2014 to 5.5 million in 2014.