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Arkansas marketplace overview
Arkansas has a state-based exchange utilizing the federal enrollment platform. Two carriers (Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield and Ambetter) are offering 2023 coverage through the exchange, although they offer plans through a few different subsidiaries, as described below. Oscar Health offered plans in the Arkansas exchange in 2022, but stopped offering those plans at the end of 2022.
During the open enrollment period for 2023 coverage, enrollment through the Arkansas exchange hit a new record high, with more than 100,000 people signing up for coverage (not including people eligible for Medicaid expansion who are enrolled in exchange plans under the state’s privatized approach to Medicaid expansion).
Frequently asked questions about Arkansas's ACA marketplace
For the first three years of exchange implementation, Arkansas had a partnership exchange for individuals, but since 2017, they have had a state-based exchange using the federal enrollment platform (SBE-FP) at HealthCare.gov. The state ran its own exchange for small businesses from November 2015 until the end of 2018.
For individuals enrolling in coverage through the Arkansas exchange, the interface remained the same after the state transitioned to an SBE-FP, since they continued to use HealthCare.gov’s enrollment platform. But behind the scenes, My Arkansas Insurance (the state-based exchange) is playing a larger role now, and consumers can use that website to obtain information and assistance. The Arkansas exchange call center is operational Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m, Monday to Friday.
The exchange went through a transition in 2019, however, under the terms of S.B.113, which was enacted as Act 107 in February 2019 and called for the Arkansas Insurance Department to take over the operation of My Arkansas Insurance. Under the terms of the legislation, the board of directors that had been running the Arkansas exchange was abolished and all duties, responsibilities, financial obligations, and assets were taken over by the Arkansas Insurance Department. The exchange as a separate nonprofit entity was officially dissolved in March 2019, and its eight employees were given severance packages.
From a consumer perspective, however, nothing has changed. The exchange website is still active (it now says “My Arkansas Insurance, A Division of the Arkansas Insurance Department), as is the call center. But the behind-the-scenes work is now being done by the Arkansas Insurance Department instead of a separate entity called the Arkansas Health Insurance Marketplace.
The open enrollment period for individual/family health coverage runs from November 1 through January 15 in Arkansas.
Outside of open enrollment, a qualifying event is necessary to enroll or make changes to your coverage. If you have questions about open enrollment, you can read more in our comprehensive guide to open enrollment.
Plans are available from two insurers in the Arkansas exchange, although they offer plans via various subsidiaries. Oscar left the Arkansas market at the end of 2022, but plans continue to be available from Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield and Ambetter.
The following insurers offer plans in the Arkansas exchange for 2023 (note that some of the insurers offer plans through multiple affiliates):
- Ambetter (including QualChoice and QCA Health Plan)
- Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield/USAble Mutual (PPO plans)
- Health Advantage/HMO Partners (POS plans). This is an affiliate of Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield
In 2014 and 2015, plans were available in the Arkansas exchange from Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield, Celtic Insurance Company (Ambetter), and QualChoice/QCA Health Plan (both owned by QualChoice Holdings at that point, although Ambetter now owns those plans).
UnitedHealthcare of Arkansas joined the exchange for 2016, but its participation only lasted one year. The Arkansas Insurance Department confirmed that United would not participate in the Arkansas exchange in 2017. The carrier pulled out of the state’s individual market at the end of 2016, which was the case in most of the states where United offered exchange plans in 2016.
But United’s market share was small; Arkansas officials reported that only about 550 people in the Arkansas exchange had to switch to another carrier for 2017 due to United’s exit.
Since 2017, the other insurers have remained in the Arkansas exchange. Plans continue to be available from Arkansas BCBS, Ambetter/Centene, QualChoice Life and Health, and QCA Health Plan.
But as of 2020, both of the QualChoice entities are owned by Centene/Ambetter.
For 2021, Oscar applied to join the state’s individual market, and so did HMO Partners (Health Advantage; an affiliate of Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield, which already offered group plans in the state). HMO Partners was approved to offer individual market plans and continues to sell plans in the exchange as of 2023. But Oscar’s filing was not approved, so they did not offer plans for 2021.
However, Oscar’s filing was accepted in 2021, and the insurer offered health plans for 2022 in Arkansas. Their participation was short-lived however, and they stopped offering coverage in Arkansas at the end of 2022.
The Arkansas Insurance Department published the proposed rate changes for 2023, all of which were approved as filed according to the federal rate review site. The overall weighted average rate increase amounted to about 5.9% for 2023.
The following average rate changes were approved for 2023:
- Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield (USAble Mutual): 5.8% increase
- Ambetter (Celtic/Centene): 7.9% increase
- QualChoice Life and Health (now owned by Centene/Ambetter; plans are marketed as Ambetter): 3.1% increase
- QCA Health Plan (now owned by Centene/Ambetter; plans are marketed as Ambetter): 5% increase
- Health Advantage (HMO Partners; an affiliate of Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield): 5.3% increase
QualChoice and QCA are now owned by Centene and marketed under the Ambetter brand. And Health Advantage, which joined the Arkansas marketplace as of 2021, is an affiliate of Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield. So although there are five different insurers listed on the state’s individual market rate change overview, three of them are under the Ambetter umbrella, and two are under the Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield umbrella.
Whenever we talk about weighted average rate increases (about 5.9% in Arkansas for 2023), it’s important to keep several points in mind:
- Average rate changes apply to full-price plans, and very few enrollees pay full price for their coverage, as most receive premium subsidies (this is particularly true now as a result of the American Rescue Plan and Inflation Reduction Act). For subsidized enrollees, the net rate change depends on how their specific plan’s rates are changing, as well as any changes in their premium subsidy amount. Subsidy amounts vary based on the cost of the benchmark plan, as well as the enrollee’s projected income.
- Overall average rate changes don’t account for the fact that premiums increase with age. So enrollees will pay more each year — just due to the fact that they’re getting older — even if their health plan’s overall average rate change is 0%.
- A weighted average, by definition, lumps all the plans together. But plan options vary by region, and an insurer can have several plans with significant variation in terms of rate changes. So the specific rate change that applies to a given enrollee can be quite different from the average, even if they do pay full price for their plan.
One additional point: The number of people with true private individual market health plans through the Arkansas exchange stood at 81,576 as of early 2022. Although the individual market filings for 2023 showed a market size of more than 383,000 people (including on-exchange and off-exchange), the majority of those people are enrolled in expanded Medicaid in Arkansas, which uses Medicaid funds to purchase private health plans for enrollees.
- 2014: This was the first year that ACA-compliant plans were available, and rates were essentially an educated guess, as there was no claims experience in the ACA-compliant individual market at that point.
- 2015: The Arkansas Insurance Department announced that premiums would be two percent lower on average compared to 2014 rates.
- 2016: Average rates in Arkansas increased by less than 5 percent (Arkansas BCBS’s rates increased by an average of 7.15 percent, Celtic/Ambetter’s rates increased by an average of only 0.08 percent, and QualChoice/QCA Health Plan had an average rate decrease of 8.2 percent).
- 2017: When carriers in Arkansas had submitted their initial rate proposals for 2017 (in May 2016), state regulators said that they didn’t believe there was enough justification for those rate requests, and that they planned to deny them “until there is sufficient justification to properly consider any rate increase.”That was in May 2016. In mid-August, all of the carriers that offer plans in the Arkansas exchange proposed new rate increases for 2017, all of which were lower than their initially filed rates. Rate increases were then reduced even further for QualChoice and QCA.
- 2018: The Arkansas Insurance Department issued a bulletin stating that insurers could submit alternate rate filings to the Insurance Department, which would take the place of their officially filed rates if there were changes at the federal level relating to cost-sharing reduction (CSR) funding and/or requirements. California’s Insurance Commissioner granted similar flexibility for insurers filing 2018 rates. Ultimately, Arkansas regulators ended up finalizing the rates that were based on the assumption that CSR funding would not continue in 2018. This was a wise decision, as the Trump Administration cut off CSR funding the following week.
The Arkansas Insurance Department has a web page where they showed the initial rate increases that insurers proposed, as well as the rates that were proposed to cover the cost of cost-sharing reductions (CSR). The state had noted that if CSR funding was not committed by the federal government by October 6, 2017, they would finalize the higher rates. Not only did October 6 come and go without a CSR funding commitment, but the Trump Administration officially eliminated CSR funding the following week, on October 12. But since Arkansas had already finalized rates that are high enough to cover the cost of CSR, the market remained stable heading into 2018.The cost of CSR was applied to the premiums for silver plans. That means silver plan rates increased by more than the premiums for other metal levels, which means that premium subsidies were also larger than they would otherwise have been for 2018.The revised rates that the insurers proposed were finalized and implemented for 2018, and are obviously quite a bit higher than they would have been if CSR funding had been allocated by Congress. The average rate increases ranged from14% for USAble Mutual to 25% for QualChoice Life and Health. - 2019: The weighted average rate increase for 2019 was just over 4%, although it would likely be decreasing slightly if the individual mandate penalty hadn’t been eliminated, and if the Trump Administration hadn’t taken steps to expand access to short-term and association health plans. The rate filing details that were approved by the Arkansas Insurance Department for 2019 are available here.
- 2020: Rate increases for 2020 were very modest, averaging only 2.3%. The Arkansas Insurance Department approved the following average rate increases for 2020. Although overall average premiums in Arkansas increased by 2.3 percent for 2020, average benchmark premiums in the state decreased by 3%. Premium subsidies are based on the benchmark premium, and when the benchmark premium decreases, premium subsidies decrease as well. So although the average rate increases were very small for 2020, average increases in net premiums (ie, after subsidies are applied) could have been more significant for some enrollees who receive subsidies, due to a simultaneous reduction in subsidy amounts. 88% of exchange enrollees in Arkansas were receiving premium subsidies as of 2020.
- 2021: The Arkansas Insurance Department published the approved rate changes for 2021 in the fall of 2020. There had initially been filings from two new insurers (Oscar, and Health Advantage/HMO Partners), but Oscar’s filing was not approved (they were approved to join the market for 2022, however, as described above). The rates that were approved for 2021 ended up amounting to an average increase of about 3.4% (down from the roughly 7% that the insurers had initially proposed).
- 2022: The Arkansas Insurance Department published the proposed rate changes for 2022, in August 2021, and they amounted to a proposed an average rate increase of 6.5%. The approved rates ended up being a bit lower than proposed for some of the insurers, resulting in an overall average rate increase of about 4.4% for 2022. And Oscar is new to the marketplace for 2022.
As has been the case in many of the states that use HealthCare.gov, enrollment in the Arkansas exchange initially peaked in 2016 and declined each year through 2020. But it grew in 2021, 2022, and 2023, hitting new record highs in both 2022 and 2023. More than 100,000 people enrolled during the open enrollment for 2023 coverage.
Here’s a look at how enrollment in private plans in the Arkansas exchange has varied over the years:
- 2014: 43,446 people enrolled
- 2015: 65,684 people enrolled
- 2016: 73,648 people enrolled
- 2017: 70,404 people enrolled
- 2018: 68,100 people enrolled
- 2019: 67,413 people enrolled
- 2020: 64,360 people enrolled
- 2021: 66,094 people enrolled
- 2022: 88,226 people enrolled
- 2023: 100,407 people enrolled
Although Arkansas uses Medicaid funds to purchase private plans in the exchange for Medicaid expansion enrollees, those enrollments are not reflected in the numbers above. Although more than 383,000 people are enrolled in individual/family health plans in Arkansas, the majority of them are enrolled via Medicaid expansion, with Medicaid funds being used to purchase their plans in the exchange.
Arkansas has mostly embraced the ACA. The state has expanded Medicaid via an 1115 waiver that allows the state to purchase private plans for Medicaid expansion enrollees (albeit with a controversial work requirement that took effect in 2018 but was later overturned by a judge).
Arkansas operated a fully state-based small business exchange from 2016 through 2018. (No carriers opted to participate in 2019, so the state is no longer running a small business exchange.) And since 2017, the state has operated a state-based exchange for individuals using the HealthCare.gov enrollment platform.
Four insurers currently offer dental plans through the Arkansas marketplace. Learn about dental coverage options in Arkansas.
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Controversy over marketplace fee was instrumental in the switch to having the Insurance Department run the exchange
Through 2016, SBE-FPs (like the one Arkansas runs) used Healthcare.gov for free. But the fee increased 1.5% of premiums for 2017, to 2% of premiums in 2018, and to 3% in 2019. The fee in states that rely fully on the federally-run exchange was 3.5%, so states like Arkansas that otherwise run their own exchanges were only getting a small discount, which played a role in Nevada and New Mexico’s decisions to switch from SBE-FPs to fully state-run exchanges.
Starting in December 2016, the Arkansas Health Insurance Marketplace began collecting 3% of premiums as its exchange fee, replacing the previous 3.5% fee that Healthcare.gov charged before the state-run exchange was up and running. In 2017, half of the new fee was remitted to Healthcare.gov for use of its enrollment platform, and the other half was used by the Arkansas exchange to cover its operations costs. The fee was essential to the exchange, as they could no longer use federal grant money to cover operational expenses after the end of 2016.
But there was significant controversy over the legality of the fee, and whether it could be implemented without the consent of the full legislature. Arkansas Online’s Andy Davis has a thorough account of the issues surrounding the exchange fee in articles dated September 7, September 8, and September 9, 2016.
Soon thereafter, the Arkansas Health Insurance Marketplace board of directors voted unanimously to increase the fee to 3.5% starting in 2018, but this was before HHS announced that the exchange user fee for SBM-FPs would be just 2% in 2018 (instead of the 3% that had been proposed). So the Arkansas exchange ended up keeping the 3% fee in place for 2018 as well.
But for 2019, the exchange had to pay 3% for the use of HealthCare.gov, making the previous fee insufficient, as it would have to be fully remitted to the federal government, leaving nothing left for the state to run its exchange operation. So the fee was increased to 4.25% of premiums for 2019. This allowed the exchange to keep 1.25% and remit the other 3% to HealthCare.gov. This was higher than the 3.5% fee charged in states that simply rely fully on the federally-run exchange, but Arkansas was able to retain some flexibility and control by having a state-run exchange, and that would be lost if the state simply defaulted to the federally-run exchange.
Not surprisingly, however, the higher fee was controversial. Arkansas Insurance Commissioner, Allen Kerr, noted in 2018 that the Arkansas Insurance Department could take over the duties the exchange currently performs (while continuing to use HealthCare.gov as the enrollment platform) for under $600,000/year, as opposed to the $3.8 million that the exchange spent in the previous fiscal year. Kerr said that if the Insurance Department were to take over the duties of the exchange, the fee would drop back down to 3% as of 2020, which would be entirely remitted to HealthCare.gov by the insurers, and the cost to manage the exchange’s duties would come from the insurance department’s budget, which was not fully utilized at that point.
But opponents of this proposed change note that consumers would have less assistance if the exchange board was to be dissolved and its employees let go. The exchange said that it was already reducing the amount that it spent, and had agreed to reduce the exchange user fee starting in 2020, although it still would have been above the level that’s collected in states that rely entirely on HealthCare.gov.
All of that ended up being a moot point, however, when the state enacted S.B.113 in February 2019 and moved the exchange under the umbrella of the Arkansas Insurance Department. Commissioner Kerr has noted that the exchange user fee would drop to 3 percent in 2020, as the Insurance Department would no longer need to collect a fee above and beyond the amount that must be remitted to HealthCare.gov.
For perspective, all of the state-run exchanges have carriers fees/assessments in order to generate funding needed to operate the exchange, but the fees vary considerably from one state to another, and the significant variations in enrollment volume make it hard to compare states on an apples-to-apples basis.
The long journey to a state-run exchange for individuals
The Arkansas legislature considered a bill to establish a state-run exchange during the 2011 session, but it did not pass. The Arkansas Insurance Department then shifted gears and received grant money in February 2012 to develop a partnership exchange.
The Arkansas Health Insurance Marketplace was established in 2013 by the Arkansas legislature, under Act 1500, to create a state-based exchange. But the process was then put on hold for a while.
In March 2015, lawmakers had passed Senate Bill 343, which required the state to wait to proceed with establishing a state-run exchange until after the King v. Burwell ruling was announced. That put the Arkansas Health Connector’s transition to a fully state-run model on hold, although lawmakers and the exchange board continued to work on the details of how the state-run exchange would work.
In June 2015, Arkansas was one of three states that got conditional approval from the Obama Administration to operate a state-run exchange (at that point the state had a partnership exchange, which is considered federally-run).
That same month, the Supreme Court issued a ruling in the King v. Burwell case, clarifying that subsidies are legal in the federally-run marketplace. That meant there was no longer a concern that subsidies could evaporate and insurance markets would destabilize in states that use Healthcare.gov. Although Arkansas had been working towards a state-based exchange for some time, and had obtained almost $100 million in federal funding to make the switch, the Court’s ruling removed some of the incentive to proceed with the transition, since subsidies were safe regardless of how the exchange is structured.
Following the Supreme Court’s decision, Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson asked the state to reconsider whether the move to a state-run exchange is still the best course of action: “I am convinced now more than ever that we need to proceed with caution to measure the costs to the taxpayers and the reliability of the outcome as we consider the potential of a state exchange.” In August 2015, he reiterated his concerns, saying: “Right now, we’re building a state-run exchange with a $99 million grant from the federal government, and I’m asking the question, why are we building the state exchange rather than relying on a continued partnership with the federal exchange?“
In September 2015, Hutchinson said that the state’s progress towards creating a state-run health insurance exchange for individual plans was “on pause at this point” and that he had communicated that information to HHS. Hutchinson went on to say that Healthcare.gov was working well, and that he wasn’t sure the state needed to push forward with plans for a state-run exchange, which involved additional risks and costs.
By June 2016, Hutchinson’s focus has turned to operating a state-based exchange but using the federal enrollment platform at Healthcare.gov, and that took effect in November 2016. Individuals can get assistance and information at My Arkansas Insurance, and are then directed to HealthCare.gov to enroll.
Arkansas health insurance exchange links
Arkansas Health Connector
855-283-3483
HealthCare.gov
800-318-2596
My Arkansas Insurance
Website for Arkansas’ state-based health insurance exchange (run by the AR Insurance Department; enrollments are conducted via HealthCare.gov)
Louise Norris is an individual health insurance broker who has been writing about health insurance and health reform since 2006. She has written dozens of opinions and educational pieces about the Affordable Care Act for healthinsurance.org. Her state health exchange updates are regularly cited by media who cover health reform and by other health insurance experts.
Other types of health coverage in Arkansas
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