Health Insurers May Owe $1.1 Billion in MLR Rebates in 2024

  • Jun 07, 2024

    Insurers that participate in the individual, small-group and large-group markets are estimated to pay a total of $1.1 billion in medical loss ratio (MLR) rebates to their customers in 2024 — falling short of record-high $2.5 billion in rebates in 2020 but staying similar to rebates levels in 2022 and 2023, according to a KFF analysis on preliminary data filed by insurers.

    Under the Affordable Care Act, insurers that spend less than a certain percentage of their premium income on health care claims and quality improvement must rebate customers. Individual/small group plans must issue rebates if their MLRs fall below 80%, while the cutoff is 85% for large group plans. About half of the total rebate amount will go to individual market enrollees this year. Nearly $12 billion in rebates in total have been issued since the ACA required insurers to pay back excess profits to customers starting in 2012.

    Read more
    © 2024 MMIT
  • Jinghong Chen

    Jinghong has been producing infographics and data stories on employer-sponsored insurance, public health insurance programs and prescription drug coverage for AIS Health’s Health Plan Weekly and Radar on Drug Benefits since 2018. She also manages AIS Health’s annual executive compensation database for top insurers and Blue Cross and Blue Shield affiliates. Before joining AIS Health, she interned at WBEZ, Al Jazeera English and The New York Times Chinese. She graduated from Missouri School of Journalism with a focus on data journalism and international reporting.

The Latest
Meet Our Reporters

Meet Our Reporters

×
×