Private Exchanges will not Protect Against the Impact of the HHS Minimum Loss Ratio and Actuarial Value Regulations

There is great excitement in the some quarters of the health plan industry, that “private” exchanges will supplant the ObamaCare public exchanges, and protect the individual and small group health plan market against the impact of the HHS Minimum Loss Ratio (MLR) and Actuarial Value (AV) regulations.

Here is your wake up call: your wrong. Unless those private exchanges are self insured plans only — they will not be protected against having to comply with the Minimum Loss Ratio and Actuarial Value regulations. (It is hard to imagine how a self-insured only private exchange could exist, under ObamaCare.)

This means, essentially, that “private” exchanges will not have any bronze plans either, just like there will be no bronze plans in the public exchanges — because of the cumulative impact of the design of the HHS MLR and AV regulations, which discriminate against Health Savings Account health plans — and all other fully insured health plans with a high deductible and low premium.