Louisiana Health Insurance

Health insurance in Louisiana

● Louisiana has a federally subsidized health insurance marketplace and enrolls through HealthCare.gov.

● Open enrollment for 2021 health insurance plans runs from November 1 to December 15, 2020. Residents with qualifying events can still sign up or make changes to their coverage for 2020.

● Short-term health insurance plans are available in Louisiana with initial plan terms of up to six months (or longer, if they limit the research period of pre-exist conditions to no more than 12 months).

● Four carriers offer plans for 2020 in Louisiana's individual marketplace.

● Nearly 88,000 Louisianans signed up for 2020 coverage through the state exchange.

● Louisiana adopted the ACA's Medicaid expansion in 2016. As of August 2020, more than 538,000 people were enrolled in expanded Medicaid in Louisiana.

This page is dedicated to helping consumers quickly find health insurance resources in the state of Louisiana. Here you will find information about the many types of health insurance coverage available. You can find the basics of Louisiana's health insurance marketplace and the next open enrollment period; a brief overview of Medicaid expansion in Louisiana; information on the availability of short-term health insurance in the state; details about Medicare in Louisiana; as well as a collection of health insurance resources for Louisiana residents.

Louisiana's health insurance marketplace

Louisiana operates a federally subsidized health insurance marketplace, so residents HealthCare.gov to enroll in exchange plans.

In December 2020, Christus joined three other insurers - Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, HMO Louisiana and Vantage Health Plan - in offering medical insurance plans through Louisiana's health insurance marketplace. Service areas vary from insurer to insurer, however, so plan availability varies by state.

At ACA signups, Charles Gaba calculated an average rate increase of 11.7% for Louisiana's individual health insurance marketplace for 2020; the state is one of only three in the country that has had double-digit premium increases for 2020.

All four insurers will continue to offer plans in the Louisiana exchange in 2021. They have proposed overall increases in the average rate ranging from about 2.7% to 9.5%, which is once again equivalent to larger proposed increases than we see in most other states.

Enrollment in private plans through the Louisiana exchange had fallen to a record low of less than 88,000 people by the end of the open enrollment period for 2020 coverage (more than 214,000 people had signed up as of December 2016). But Louisiana expanded Medicaid in mid-2016, with the result that a sizable number of low-income people - many of whom had been enrolled in heavily subsidized private plans through the exchange - instead gained eligibility for Medicaid and distanced themselves from their private coverage (in many other states, Medicaid expansion went into effect in 2014). , at the same time exchange enrollment initially became available, so the type of enrollment move that took place in Louisiana from 2016 to 2018 did not happen in those states).

Louisiana open enrollment period and dates

Open enrollment for 2021 health insurance plans runs from November 1 to December 15, 2020. Louisiana residents with qualifying events can still enroll or make changes to their medical insurance for 2020.

Medicaid expansion in Louisiana

In 2015, there were 192,000 Louisianans in the Medicaid coverage gap, meaning they didn't qualify for Medicaid coverage or Obamacare subsidies to help make health insurance affordable.

But Louisiana implemented the expansion of Affordable Care's Medicaid coverage in June 2016. As of August 2020, more than 538,000 people were enrolled in extended Medicaid coverage in Louisiana. This is a substantial increase compared to the end of 2019, when around 456,000 people were registered. But the COVID-19 pandemic has brought Medicaid expansion higher nationwide, as job losses and reduced income make people newly eligible for Medicaid coverage - including people who were previously employed (and potentially enrolled in health coverage offered by their employers) or run a small business.

Short-term health insurance in Louisiana

Current federal regulations allow short-term health insurance plans to have initial terms of up to 364 days and a total duration - including renewals - of 36 months. But the regulations are clear in their minds that states can continue to have more restrictive rules.

Louisiana state insurance regulations limit the initial duration of short-term health insurance plans in Louisiana to six months, but only if the insurer looks back more than 12 months to determine whether the claimer has pre-existing medical conditions. If the insurer considers only the last 12 months of the applicant's medical history, the plan can have an initial duration of up to 364 days. Some of the insurers that offer short-term health insurance plans in Louisiana look back more than 12 months when they consider an applicant's medical history, so their plans are limited to six months.

The state, however, neither restricts nor prohibits the renewal of plans, nor subsequent purchases of additional short-term health insurance coverage.

How did Obamacare help Louisiana?

Louisiana's uninsured rate fell from 16.6% in 2013 to 10.3% in 2016, but at that point it was still above the national average of 8.6%. But as Medicaid expansion fell in mid-2016, Louisiana's uninsured rate had fallen to 8% by 2018 - below the national average of 8.9% (the uninsured rate nationally fell below the Trump administration).

For those who purchased health insurance in Louisiana, the ACA helped make coverage more affordable. Of those who signed up for the plans through the Louisiana exchange by 2020, 91% received premium subsidies and 52% received cost-sharing reductions.

And the Medicaid expansion helped hundreds of thousands of low-income Louisiana residents get life-saving coverage and care: 538,122 people were enrolled in expanded Medicaid in August 2020, and nearly three-quarters of them had been to the doctor at least once during the year.

Louisiana and the Affordable Care Act

The Louisiana Senate delegation is currently entirely Republican - Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy, both opposed to the ACA. Cassidy in particular played a key role in 2017 in the GOP's ultimately unsuccessful efforts to repeal the ACA. In the House of Representatives, Louisiana has only one Democrat (Cedric Richmond), who supports the ACA.

At the state level, Louisiana's legislature is dominated by Republicans, and the ACA has gained no traction. Although legislation to establish a state-run health insurance marketplace has been considered, it has not passed.

Former Governor Bobby Jindal, whose term ended in January 2016, strongly opposed the Affordable Care Act. He returned a $1 million federal planning grant to explore a state-run insurance marketplace, defaulted on the federally subsidized marketplace, and rejected Medicaid expansion.

Jindal was replaced in 2016 by John Bel Edwards, a Democrat who supports the ACA. One of Edwards' first actions as governor was to expand Medicaid coverage in Louisiana.

Does Louisiana have a high-risk pool?

The Louisiana Health Plan was created in 1992 in order to provide a coverage option for state residents who could not get private plans in the individual marketplace because of their medical history.

But Obamacare's guaranteed broadcaster provision means that pre-existing conditions are now covered by all policies and are no longer taken into account in the application process. As a result, the need for high-risk pools no longer exists as it once did. The Louisiana Health Plan finished all coverage on December 31, 2014, under the terms of House Bill 638 (passed in June 2013). Instead, members were able to move to new ACA-compliant plans.

Other ACA reform provisions

The ACA's Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan (CO-OP) was established to promote marketplace competition through consumer-run non-profit health insurance companies. Twenty-four CO-PO received loans totaling $2.09 billion in January 2014, but most went bankrupt in the first few years and only three will still be operational starting in 2021.

Louisiana Health Cooperative received a $65.8 million startup loan. Louisiana Health Cooperative competed against Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, Vantage Health Plan and Humana during open enrollments in 2014, but struggled with its enrollment goals.

On July 24, 2015, the Louisiana CO-OP announced that it would continue to cover subscribers until the end of the year, but would not sell plans in 2016. People who were enrolled in Louisiana health cooperative plans in 2015 had to switch to plans offered by other insurers for 2016.

Medicare coverage and enrollment in Louisiana

As of July 2020, there were 882,971 Medicare beneficiaries in Louisiana. About 42 percent are enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans, which is slightly above the national average. The other 58% have been enrolled in Original Medicare (this includes Medicare Part A, which provides hospital services, and Medicare Part B, which provides outpatient services).

Nearly 327,000 Louisiana Medicare beneficiaries are enrolled in autonomous Medicare Part D plans, and nearly 360,000 have part-D coverage integrated with Medicare Advantage plans.

Louisiana Health Insurance Resources

● Department of Health & Hospitals

● Louisiana Department of Insurance — Resources for Health Insurance

● Medicare Rights Center (a national service that includes a website and call center)

● Louisiana Senior Health Insurance Information Program (a resource for Medicare beneficiaries)

● HealthCare.gov (the health insurance marketplace that Louisiana residents use to buy their own health coverage)

● Louisiana Department of Health, Medicaid Office