New York Health Insurance
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New York Health Insurance welve insurers offer 2019 health plans through state’s exchange; the state extended open enrollment through January 31, 2019.
New York overview: Taking advantage of all the ACA has to offer
New York has fully embraced the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The state expanded Medicaid, established its own health insurance exchange, and even created a Basic Health Program (BHP) for people who earn more than the Medicaid eligibility threshold, but not more than 200 percent of the poverty level. BHPs are allowed under the ACA, but only New York and Minnesota opted to create them.
New York’s health insurance marketplace
The health of New York’s state-based exchange, NY State of Health remains strong heading into 2019. The exchange has robust insurer participation, and premiums are still lower for 2019 than they were in 2013. (That’s not the case in most states, but New York had guaranteed-issue coverage long before the ACA, but without a mandate requiring people to buy coverage and without premium subsidies for middle-class enrollees. As a result, coverage was expensive in New York pre-2014.)
Enrollment in NY State of Health – including QHPs (private plans), the Essential Plan, Medicaid, and Child Health Plus – reached more than 4.3 million by the end of January 2018 (when open enrollment ended for QHPs). That was an increase of 700,000 over the prior year’s total enrollment.
New York is a progressive state that embraced health care reform decades ahead of most of the rest of the country. The Affordable Care Act has smoothed out some rough edges in the New York insurance market, and since implementing Obamacare, the state has continued upon these improvements. In January 2017, prior to the inauguration of Donald Trump, New York Governor, Andrew Cuomo, announced that repealing the ACA would cause 2.7 million New Yorkers to lose their health insurance coverage.
Although Republican leaders spent 2017 attempting to repeal the ACA, most of their efforts fell short. All of the ACA repeal bills that were considered in 2017 failed to win enough support to pass, although the GOP tax bill, enacted in December 2017, did repeal the individual mandate penalty, starting in 2019 (there is still a penalty for being uninsured in 2018, which will be assessed on tax returns in early 2019, but there will not be a federal penalty for being uninsured starting in 2019).
A few states have implemented their own individual mandates for 2019 and beyond, although New York is not one of them. But Governor Cuomo took action in early 2017 to protect New York residents’ access to birth control and abortion coverage, regardless of the future of the ACA. The Governor also worked to ensure continued robust insurer participation in the individual market, and ongoing access to essential health benefits. Lawmakers once again considered a single-payer system during the 2018 legislative session — it passed the Assembly, but fell short in the Senate, just as it did in 2017.
Compare plans and rates in your ZIP code
2019 exchange carriers
New York has a very robust individual health insurance market, with 12 carriers offering plans in the exchange, and two that offer plans only outside the exchange. All of them will continue to offer coverage for 2019, with average rate increases (before subsidies are applied) of 8.6 percent. (Details about approved average rate changes for each plan are available here). The following insurers offer individual-market plans in New York’s exchange:
Capital District Physicians Health Plan
Empire BlueCross and Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield
Excellus (Excellus Blue Cross Blue Shield in Central New York and Univera in Western New York)
Fidelis Care
Health Insurance Plan of Greater New York (EmblemHealth)
Healthfirst New York
HealthNow New York, Inc. (BlueShield of Northeastern New York, and BlueCross BlueShield of Western New York)
Independent Health
MetroPlus Health Plan
MVP Health Plan, Inc.
Oscar Insurance Corporation
United Healthcare of New York, Inc
Two insurers – Crystal Run Health Plan and HealthFirst Insurance Company – will continue to offer off-exchange plans in 2019.
In the small-group market – where more than a million New Yorkers get their health coverage – employers with up to 100 employees can purchase ACA-compliant plans. With the exception of Fidelis, all of the individual-market carriers offer small-group plans, in addition to Aetna Life, Oxford, and some additional divisions of a few of the companies that offer individual market plans.
Fifteen New York health carriers offer plans under the state’s Basic Health Program. Also known as the “Essential Plan,” this coverage is for people with incomes up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level and does not include a deductible or premium. New York and Minnesota are the only states that have established BHPs.
New York State of Health enrollment tops 4.3 million
Open enrollment for 2019 coverage will run from November 1, 2018 to January 31, 2019 for qualified health plans. (Enrollment in Medicaid, Child Health Plus, and the Essential Plan continues year-round.)
Open enrollment for 2018 coverage followed the same November to January schedule, ending on January 31, 2018. In May 2018, New York State of Health published an enrollment report, noting that total enrollment in public and private plans through the exchange (including Medicaid, the Essential Plan, Child Health Plus, and private plans) had reached 4.3 million people by the end of January, which was an increase of 700,000 people compared with the year before.
At the end of the open enrollment period for 2018 coverage, enrollment was as follows:
253,102 people had enrolled in private health plans, aka QHPs.
738,851 people had enrolled in the Essential Plan (a Basic Health Program for people with income up to 200 percent of the poverty level)
374,577 people had enrolled in Child Health Plus
2,965,863 people had enrolled in Medicaid
New York’s QHP enrollment numbers dropped in 2016, which was due in part to the Essential Plan becoming available. The Essential Plan also reduced the percentage of QHP enrollees who received premiums subsidies, dropping from 70 percent in 2015 to 55 percent in 2016. That had increased to 59 percent by 2018.
Read more about the New York health insurance marketplace.
Health Republic CO-OP closed in November 2015
One of the available plans during the first two open enrollment periods was an ACA-created Consumer Oriented and Operated Plan (CO-OP). Under the ACA, the federal government awarded $2 billion in start-up funding to CO-OPs in 22 states.
In New York, the CO-OP was Freelancers Health Service Corporation (also known as Health Republic), which received $174 million in federal funding. The CO-OP was highly successful in terms of enrollments, garnering about 20 percent of the individual market in New York in both 2014 and 2015. However, it struggled financially, and in September 2015, state and federal regulators shut down the CO-OP.
Learn more about the Affordable Care Act’s CO-OPs.
New York Medicaid/CHIP enrollment
Medicaid/CHIP enrollment in New York increased by 14 percent from the fall of 2013 to July 2018. The state’s acceptance of federal funding to expand Medicaid eligibility to 138 percent of poverty has played a significant role in New York’s Obamacare success.
The ACA called for Medicaid expansion nationwide, but in 2012 the Supreme Court ruled that states could opt out, and 19 states have not yet expanded their Medicaid programs.
During the first open enrollment period, the Kaiser Family Foundation estimated that about 43 percent of the 2.2 million non-elderly uninsured residents in New York would be eligible for Medicaid or CHIP under the expanded eligibility guidelines created by the ACA. Eligible applicants can enroll in New York Medicaid year-round, so total enrollment has continued to increase, further lowering the uninsured rate in New York.
The addition of the Essential Plan in 2016 helped to smooth the transition between Medicaid and private health plans. People with income a little too high for Medicaid (139 percent to 200 percent of the federal poverty level) qualify for the Essential Plan instead of having to enroll in a subsidized private plan. Enrollment in the Essential Plan had reached 740,000 people by 2018, and will continue to have premiums of $20/month or less in 2019.
Read more about Medicaid expansion in New York.
Short-term health insurance in New York
The state of New York requires health plans to be guaranteed renewable and cover essential health benefits. As a result of those two regulations, the state does not allow the sale of short-term health plans, despite new federal short-term rules.
Read more about short-term health insurance in New York.
How Obamacare has helped New York
In most of the United States, individual health insurance was medically underwritten prior to 2014, meaning that people with pre-existing conditions were often unable to purchase private coverage. But in New York, former Gov. Mario Cuomo signed a law in 1992 that required all policies in the state to be guaranteed issue, regardless of medical history. They also switched to a community rating system, with the same premiums charged for everyone, regardless of age.
Although the 1992 law was heralded by consumer advocates as a victory, it lacked two of the major market stabilization components that the ACA has now enacted. There were no open enrollment periods (people could buy coverage anytime they wanted), and there was no individual mandate, so people could wait until they were in need of care before purchasing health insurance.
Two decades later, health insurance premiums in New York were the highest in the nation, and coverage options were very limited, with few carriers choosing to participate in the market in New York.
The ACA brought much-needed changes to New York, keeping the guaranteed issue model (and in New York, coverage is still community-rated), but adding the vitally important individual mandate, limited enrollment period, and premium subsidies to make coverage affordable for middle class enrollees. As a result, the rates that the state approved for 2014 were an average of 50 percent lower than 2013 rates, and that was before factoring in the subsidies that 60 percent of New York State of health’s QHP enrollees receive (QHP stands for qualified health plan, which is another word for the private health plans offered for sale in the exchange, as opposed to Medicaid, the Essential Plan, and Child Health Plus). Officials in NY noted that 2018 premiums continue to be more than 50 percent lower than pre-2014 rates, despite modest rate increases each year.
In 2013, about 10.7 percent of New York residents were uninsured, according to US Census data. By 2017, that number had fallen by nearly half, to 5.7 percent. At that point, the average uninsured rate across the US was 8.7 percent, and just 13 states had uninsured rates lower than New York’s.
NY State of Health enrolled more than 4.3 million people during the open enrollment period for 2018 coverage, including enrollments in the Essential Plan, Child Health Plus, Medicaid, and individual qualified health plans. Enrollments continue year-round for Medicaid, Child Health Plus, and the Essential Plan.
New York’s lawmakers and the Affordable Care Act
In 2010, New York’s U.S. senators (Democrats Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles Schumer) both voted yes on the ACA. In the U.S. House, 24 Democrats voted yes, while two Republicans and two Democrats (Michael McMahon and Michael Arcuri) voted no. Schumer and Gillibrand are still in the Senate. Both McMahon and Arcuri were replaced by new Democrats in 2013. The U.S. House delegation from New York currently consists of nine Republicans and 17 Democrats, with one vacant seat. We have a summary of how each of them has voted on key health care reform legislation.
In New York’s state legislature, there’s a strong Democratic majority in the House. Although the Senate also technically has a Democratic majority, nine Democrats caucus with the Republicans, including eight who belong to the Independent Democratic Conference (IDC). This has allowed Republicans to retain control of the state Senate, although the IDC members have signed on as co-sponsors of the legislation that would create a single-payer system in New York.
Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo is an ardent supporter of the ACA, saying in 2012, “We look forward to continuing to work together with the Obama administration to ensure accessible, quality care for all New Yorkers.” He has continued with that support, moving ahead in January 2017 to implement regulations that protect contraceptive and abortion coverage at the state level, regardless of the future of the ACA under the Trump Administration.
The state has been fully on-board with ACA implementation from the start, opting for a state-run exchange (NY State of Health) and expanding Medicaid to cover residents with incomes up to 138 percent of poverty. The state was also only the second in the nation (after Minnesota) to implement the ACA’s provision to create a Basic Health Program, extending very low-cost health insurance (the Essential Plan) to residents with incomes up to 200 percent of the poverty level.
Medicare enrollment in New York
New York Medicare Medicare enrollment reached nearly 3.6 million enrollees in 2018 – almost 18 percent of the state’s population, which is consistent with the percentage of people enrolled in Medicare nationwide. As of 2016, about 85 percent of New York Medicare recipients qualify for coverage based on age alone, while the remaining 15 percent were on Medicare due to disability.
When it comes to spending, Original Medicare per-beneficiary spending in New York averaged $9,670 in 2016. That’s above the national average spending of $9,533.
Those who want additional benefits beyond what original Medicare offers can choose a Medicare Advantage plan instead of traditional coverage. In New York, 38 percent of Medicare recipients had Medicare Advantage plans as of 2017.
Medicare Part D plans are also an option for Medicare beneficiaries who want to stand-alone prescription drug coverage. In 2018, nearly 1.5 million New York beneficiaries had a stand-alone Rx plan.
New York health insurance resources
Community Health Advocates
State-based health reform legislation
In 2014, New York lawmakers passed A.9205, the “Emergency Medical Services and Surprise Bills” law. This legislation took effect in 2015, and protects consumers in some circumstances from having to pay surprise balance bills when they’re treated by out-of-network providers at in-network facilities, or when they’re referred to an out-of-network provider by their in-network provider. A year later, the law was showing signs of being a “reasonable compromise” between competing interests of insurers, providers, and patients.
New York lawmakers have tried for years to pass single payer legislation (here is the 2018 version of the legislation), but although it has passed the state Assembly for several years in a row, the Senate has not passed it.
At the bottom of this page, we have a summary of other recent New York bills related to healthcare reform.
New York Health Insurance welve insurers offer 2019 health plans through state’s exchange; the state extended open enrollment through January 31, 2019.
New York has fully embraced the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The state expanded Medicaid, established its own health insurance exchange, and even created a Basic Health Program (BHP) for people who earn more than the Medicaid eligibility threshold, but not more than 200 percent of the poverty level. BHPs are allowed under the ACA, but only New York and Minnesota opted to create them.
New York’s health insurance marketplace
The health of New York’s state-based exchange, NY State of Health remains strong heading into 2019. The exchange has robust insurer participation, and premiums are still lower for 2019 than they were in 2013. (That’s not the case in most states, but New York had guaranteed-issue coverage long before the ACA, but without a mandate requiring people to buy coverage and without premium subsidies for middle-class enrollees. As a result, coverage was expensive in New York pre-2014.)
Enrollment in NY State of Health – including QHPs (private plans), the Essential Plan, Medicaid, and Child Health Plus – reached more than 4.3 million by the end of January 2018 (when open enrollment ended for QHPs). That was an increase of 700,000 over the prior year’s total enrollment.
New York is a progressive state that embraced health care reform decades ahead of most of the rest of the country. The Affordable Care Act has smoothed out some rough edges in the New York insurance market, and since implementing Obamacare, the state has continued upon these improvements. In January 2017, prior to the inauguration of Donald Trump, New York Governor, Andrew Cuomo, announced that repealing the ACA would cause 2.7 million New Yorkers to lose their health insurance coverage.
Although Republican leaders spent 2017 attempting to repeal the ACA, most of their efforts fell short. All of the ACA repeal bills that were considered in 2017 failed to win enough support to pass, although the GOP tax bill, enacted in December 2017, did repeal the individual mandate penalty, starting in 2019 (there is still a penalty for being uninsured in 2018, which will be assessed on tax returns in early 2019, but there will not be a federal penalty for being uninsured starting in 2019).
A few states have implemented their own individual mandates for 2019 and beyond, although New York is not one of them. But Governor Cuomo took action in early 2017 to protect New York residents’ access to birth control and abortion coverage, regardless of the future of the ACA. The Governor also worked to ensure continued robust insurer participation in the individual market, and ongoing access to essential health benefits. Lawmakers once again considered a single-payer system during the 2018 legislative session — it passed the Assembly, but fell short in the Senate, just as it did in 2017.
Compare plans and rates in your ZIP code
2019 exchange carriers
New York has a very robust individual health insurance market, with 12 carriers offering plans in the exchange, and two that offer plans only outside the exchange. All of them will continue to offer coverage for 2019, with average rate increases (before subsidies are applied) of 8.6 percent. (Details about approved average rate changes for each plan are available here). The following insurers offer individual-market plans in New York’s exchange:
Capital District Physicians Health Plan
Empire BlueCross and Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield
Excellus (Excellus Blue Cross Blue Shield in Central New York and Univera in Western New York)
Fidelis Care
Health Insurance Plan of Greater New York (EmblemHealth)
Healthfirst New York
HealthNow New York, Inc. (BlueShield of Northeastern New York, and BlueCross BlueShield of Western New York)
Independent Health
MetroPlus Health Plan
MVP Health Plan, Inc.
Oscar Insurance Corporation
United Healthcare of New York, Inc
Two insurers – Crystal Run Health Plan and HealthFirst Insurance Company – will continue to offer off-exchange plans in 2019.
In the small-group market – where more than a million New Yorkers get their health coverage – employers with up to 100 employees can purchase ACA-compliant plans. With the exception of Fidelis, all of the individual-market carriers offer small-group plans, in addition to Aetna Life, Oxford, and some additional divisions of a few of the companies that offer individual market plans.
Fifteen New York health carriers offer plans under the state’s Basic Health Program. Also known as the “Essential Plan,” this coverage is for people with incomes up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level and does not include a deductible or premium. New York and Minnesota are the only states that have established BHPs.
New York State of Health enrollment tops 4.3 million
Open enrollment for 2019 coverage will run from November 1, 2018 to January 31, 2019 for qualified health plans. (Enrollment in Medicaid, Child Health Plus, and the Essential Plan continues year-round.)
Open enrollment for 2018 coverage followed the same November to January schedule, ending on January 31, 2018. In May 2018, New York State of Health published an enrollment report, noting that total enrollment in public and private plans through the exchange (including Medicaid, the Essential Plan, Child Health Plus, and private plans) had reached 4.3 million people by the end of January, which was an increase of 700,000 people compared with the year before.
At the end of the open enrollment period for 2018 coverage, enrollment was as follows:
253,102 people had enrolled in private health plans, aka QHPs.
738,851 people had enrolled in the Essential Plan (a Basic Health Program for people with income up to 200 percent of the poverty level)
374,577 people had enrolled in Child Health Plus
2,965,863 people had enrolled in Medicaid
New York’s QHP enrollment numbers dropped in 2016, which was due in part to the Essential Plan becoming available. The Essential Plan also reduced the percentage of QHP enrollees who received premiums subsidies, dropping from 70 percent in 2015 to 55 percent in 2016. That had increased to 59 percent by 2018.
Read more about the New York health insurance marketplace.
Health Republic CO-OP closed in November 2015
One of the available plans during the first two open enrollment periods was an ACA-created Consumer Oriented and Operated Plan (CO-OP). Under the ACA, the federal government awarded $2 billion in start-up funding to CO-OPs in 22 states.
In New York, the CO-OP was Freelancers Health Service Corporation (also known as Health Republic), which received $174 million in federal funding. The CO-OP was highly successful in terms of enrollments, garnering about 20 percent of the individual market in New York in both 2014 and 2015. However, it struggled financially, and in September 2015, state and federal regulators shut down the CO-OP.
Learn more about the Affordable Care Act’s CO-OPs.
New York Medicaid/CHIP enrollment
Medicaid/CHIP enrollment in New York increased by 14 percent from the fall of 2013 to July 2018. The state’s acceptance of federal funding to expand Medicaid eligibility to 138 percent of poverty has played a significant role in New York’s Obamacare success.
The ACA called for Medicaid expansion nationwide, but in 2012 the Supreme Court ruled that states could opt out, and 19 states have not yet expanded their Medicaid programs.
During the first open enrollment period, the Kaiser Family Foundation estimated that about 43 percent of the 2.2 million non-elderly uninsured residents in New York would be eligible for Medicaid or CHIP under the expanded eligibility guidelines created by the ACA. Eligible applicants can enroll in New York Medicaid year-round, so total enrollment has continued to increase, further lowering the uninsured rate in New York.
The addition of the Essential Plan in 2016 helped to smooth the transition between Medicaid and private health plans. People with income a little too high for Medicaid (139 percent to 200 percent of the federal poverty level) qualify for the Essential Plan instead of having to enroll in a subsidized private plan. Enrollment in the Essential Plan had reached 740,000 people by 2018, and will continue to have premiums of $20/month or less in 2019.
Read more about Medicaid expansion in New York.
Short-term health insurance in New York
The state of New York requires health plans to be guaranteed renewable and cover essential health benefits. As a result of those two regulations, the state does not allow the sale of short-term health plans, despite new federal short-term rules.
Read more about short-term health insurance in New York.
How Obamacare has helped New York
In most of the United States, individual health insurance was medically underwritten prior to 2014, meaning that people with pre-existing conditions were often unable to purchase private coverage. But in New York, former Gov. Mario Cuomo signed a law in 1992 that required all policies in the state to be guaranteed issue, regardless of medical history. They also switched to a community rating system, with the same premiums charged for everyone, regardless of age.
Although the 1992 law was heralded by consumer advocates as a victory, it lacked two of the major market stabilization components that the ACA has now enacted. There were no open enrollment periods (people could buy coverage anytime they wanted), and there was no individual mandate, so people could wait until they were in need of care before purchasing health insurance.
Two decades later, health insurance premiums in New York were the highest in the nation, and coverage options were very limited, with few carriers choosing to participate in the market in New York.
The ACA brought much-needed changes to New York, keeping the guaranteed issue model (and in New York, coverage is still community-rated), but adding the vitally important individual mandate, limited enrollment period, and premium subsidies to make coverage affordable for middle class enrollees. As a result, the rates that the state approved for 2014 were an average of 50 percent lower than 2013 rates, and that was before factoring in the subsidies that 60 percent of New York State of health’s QHP enrollees receive (QHP stands for qualified health plan, which is another word for the private health plans offered for sale in the exchange, as opposed to Medicaid, the Essential Plan, and Child Health Plus). Officials in NY noted that 2018 premiums continue to be more than 50 percent lower than pre-2014 rates, despite modest rate increases each year.
In 2013, about 10.7 percent of New York residents were uninsured, according to US Census data. By 2017, that number had fallen by nearly half, to 5.7 percent. At that point, the average uninsured rate across the US was 8.7 percent, and just 13 states had uninsured rates lower than New York’s.
NY State of Health enrolled more than 4.3 million people during the open enrollment period for 2018 coverage, including enrollments in the Essential Plan, Child Health Plus, Medicaid, and individual qualified health plans. Enrollments continue year-round for Medicaid, Child Health Plus, and the Essential Plan.
New York’s lawmakers and the Affordable Care Act
In 2010, New York’s U.S. senators (Democrats Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles Schumer) both voted yes on the ACA. In the U.S. House, 24 Democrats voted yes, while two Republicans and two Democrats (Michael McMahon and Michael Arcuri) voted no. Schumer and Gillibrand are still in the Senate. Both McMahon and Arcuri were replaced by new Democrats in 2013. The U.S. House delegation from New York currently consists of nine Republicans and 17 Democrats, with one vacant seat. We have a summary of how each of them has voted on key health care reform legislation.
In New York’s state legislature, there’s a strong Democratic majority in the House. Although the Senate also technically has a Democratic majority, nine Democrats caucus with the Republicans, including eight who belong to the Independent Democratic Conference (IDC). This has allowed Republicans to retain control of the state Senate, although the IDC members have signed on as co-sponsors of the legislation that would create a single-payer system in New York.
Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo is an ardent supporter of the ACA, saying in 2012, “We look forward to continuing to work together with the Obama administration to ensure accessible, quality care for all New Yorkers.” He has continued with that support, moving ahead in January 2017 to implement regulations that protect contraceptive and abortion coverage at the state level, regardless of the future of the ACA under the Trump Administration.
The state has been fully on-board with ACA implementation from the start, opting for a state-run exchange (NY State of Health) and expanding Medicaid to cover residents with incomes up to 138 percent of poverty. The state was also only the second in the nation (after Minnesota) to implement the ACA’s provision to create a Basic Health Program, extending very low-cost health insurance (the Essential Plan) to residents with incomes up to 200 percent of the poverty level.
Medicare enrollment in New York
New York Medicare Medicare enrollment reached nearly 3.6 million enrollees in 2018 – almost 18 percent of the state’s population, which is consistent with the percentage of people enrolled in Medicare nationwide. As of 2016, about 85 percent of New York Medicare recipients qualify for coverage based on age alone, while the remaining 15 percent were on Medicare due to disability.
When it comes to spending, Original Medicare per-beneficiary spending in New York averaged $9,670 in 2016. That’s above the national average spending of $9,533.
Those who want additional benefits beyond what original Medicare offers can choose a Medicare Advantage plan instead of traditional coverage. In New York, 38 percent of Medicare recipients had Medicare Advantage plans as of 2017.
Medicare Part D plans are also an option for Medicare beneficiaries who want to stand-alone prescription drug coverage. In 2018, nearly 1.5 million New York beneficiaries had a stand-alone Rx plan.
New York health insurance resources
Community Health Advocates
State-based health reform legislation
In 2014, New York lawmakers passed A.9205, the “Emergency Medical Services and Surprise Bills” law. This legislation took effect in 2015, and protects consumers in some circumstances from having to pay surprise balance bills when they’re treated by out-of-network providers at in-network facilities, or when they’re referred to an out-of-network provider by their in-network provider. A year later, the law was showing signs of being a “reasonable compromise” between competing interests of insurers, providers, and patients.
New York lawmakers have tried for years to pass single payer legislation (here is the 2018 version of the legislation), but although it has passed the state Assembly for several years in a row, the Senate has not passed it.
At the bottom of this page, we have a summary of other recent New York bills related to healthcare reform.
