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Nevada health insurance exchange overview
Nevada uses a state-run health insurance exchange – Nevada Health Link – instead of HealthCare.gov. For 2023 coverage, there are seven insurers offering coverage through the marketplace. The average rate increase across all of these plans is 9.2%, but the majority of enrollees receive premium subsidies, which are designed to keep pace with the cost of the benchmark plan.
Public option legislation was enacted in 2021 in Nevada, with plans that will be available by 2026.
Frequently asked questions about Nevada's ACA marketplace
Nevada has a fully state-run exchange, called Nevada Health Link. Nevada is one of 17 states (plus DC) where the exchange is fully operated by the state.
But that wasn’t always the case. Nevada initially had a fully-state run exchange in 2014, but it was plagued with technical problems and the exchange board voted to start using the HealthCare.gov enrollment platform in 2015.
From 2015 through 2019, Nevada Health Link was a state-run exchange using HealthCare.gov for enrollment. But the exchange began running its own enrollment platform in the fall of 2019, so Nevada residents now use the Nevada Health Link website to buy coverage in the individual market. FAQs about the transition back to a fully state-run exchange are available here.
During the open enrollment period for 2022 coverage, a record-high 101,411 people signed up for private individual/family coverage through Nevada Health Link.
Nevada Health Link operates as a “free market facilitator” or “clearinghouse,” meaning it allows all qualified health insurance companies to sell policies on the exchange.
The open enrollment period for individual/family health coverage in Nevada runs from November 1 to January 15. Outside of open enrollment, a qualifying event is necessary to enroll or make changes to your coverage.
Learn more in our comprehensive guides:
For 2023 plans sold in Nevada’s exchange, the following average rate changes were approved by the Nevada Division of Insurance, amounting to an overall average rate increase of 9.2%:
- Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield (HMO Nevada): 4.4% increase
- Friday Health Plans: 26.5% increase
- Health Plan of Nevada: 6.5% increase
- SelectHealth: 2.1% increase
- Silver Summit: 0.7% decrease
- Aetna Health: 2% increase
- Hometown Health Plan: 16.1% increase
As is always the case, weighted average rate changes don’t tell the whole story. They only apply to full-price plans, and very few enrollees pay full price for their coverage, as most receive premium subsidies that offset some or all of their premium (this is especially true now, due to the subsidy enhancements created by the American Rescue Plan, which have been extended through 2025 by the Inflation Reduction Act).
For people who receive subsidies, the net rate change from one year to the next depends on how their specific plan’s rates are changing, as well as any changes in their premium subsidy amount (which depends on the cost of the benchmark plan, as well as the enrollee’s projected income for the coming year).
Overall average rate changes also don’t account for the fact that premiums increase with age, even if a health plan’s overall average rate change is 0%. And a weighted average, by definition, lumps all plans together. But an insurer can have a wide range of rate changes across its various plans, even with a modest overall average rate change.
For 2023 coverage, there are seven insurers that offer exchange plans in Nevada, all of which also offered plans in 2022:
- Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield (HMO Colorado/HMO Nevada)
- Friday Health Plans
- Health Plan of Nevada
- SelectHealth
- Silver Summit
- Aetna Health
- Hometown Health Plan
There are a total of 163 plans available through the exchange for 2023, up from 127 in 2022 and just 27 in 2020.
Anthem had exited the exchange at the end of 2017, but rejoined in the fall of 2019, for plans effective in 2020. And SelectHealth and Friday Health Plans both joined the exchange for 2021. For 2022, Aetna and Hometown Health Plan were both new to the exchange.
2014: Four insurers. In the first year the exchange was operational, plans were available from Anthem, Health Plan of Nevada (UnitedHealthcare), Nevada Health CO-OP, and Saint Mary’s Healthfirst.
2015: Five insurers. Assurant (Time) joined the exchange for 2015, bringing the total number of insurers to five: Anthem, Assurant, Health Plan of Nevada, Nevada Health CO-OP and Prominence Health Plan (formerly Saint Mary’s Healthfirst).
2016: Three insurers. In late August 2015, the Nevada Health CO-OP (which had 37 percent of the exchange’s market share in 2014) announced that they would cease operations at the end of the year. Existing members had to pick a plan from another insurer in order to continue to have coverage in 2016.
The Nevada Health CO-OP’s Board voted voluntarily to shut down, as opposed to CO-OPs in Iowa/Nebraska, Arizona, Colorado, and New York, which were shut down by state and federal regulators. And while 12 of the original 23 CO-OPs had closed by the end of 2015, most of them did so after the federal government announced that risk corridor payments would be only a fraction of what was owed; Nevada Health CO-OP announced their closure more than a month before the risk corridor shortfall was known.
Assurant (Time) also announced earlier in 2015 that they would be exiting the individual market nationwide, and would not participate in the 2016 open enrollment. Both the CO-OP and Assurant had requested double-digit rate increases for 2016, but their members ended up having to select a plan from a different carrier for 2016.
Anthem began offering PPO options in the exchange for 2016 (they only had HMO options in 2015). In addition, Prominence expanded their plan offerings into Southern Nevada. Humana also joined the exchange for 2016, but only in the small-group market.
2017: Three insurers. Unlike many other states, carrier exits were not in the headlines in Nevada in the fall of 2016, as the carriers that participated in the exchange in 2016 all continued offering coverage for 2017. Anthem was the only insurer that offered exchange coverage in all 16 Nevada counties in 2017. Plans were also available from Health Plan of Nevada (UnitedHealthcare) and Prominence.
UnitedHealthcare exited the individual markets at the end of 2016 in most of the states where they offered exchange plans in 2016. But they remained in the Nevada market, both on and off-exchange (they only continued to participate in three exchanges: Nevada, Virginia, and New York). United’s HMO (Health Plan of Nevada) was available through the exchange, but they also have a PPO (Sierra Health and Life) that’s available off-exchange. Health Plan of Nevada was only available in three counties (Nye, Clark, and Esmerelda), but 90 percent of Nevada’s exchange enrollees live in those three counties. Prominence served seven counties, including Nye and Clark. So in those two counties, there were plans available in 2017 from all three insurers.
2018: Two insurers. Nevada created plenty of headlines in 2017. Prominence exited the ACA-compliant individual market in Nevada at the end of 2017. And with the exception of off-exchange catastrophic plans, Anthem discontinued all of their ACA-compliant individual market plans at the end of 2017, and did not offer any plans in the exchange in 2018.
Initially, Anthem’s plan was to continue to offer HMO plans in the exchange in Clark, Nye, and Washoe counties, and a catastrophic plan statewide outside the exchange. Anthem had proposed a 62 percent average rate increase for their remaining plans. But in early August, the Nevada Division of Insurance announced that Anthem had decided to withdraw completely from the Nevada exchange. [Note that this decision didn’t change the number of “bare” counties in Nevada; there were already 14 counties that didn’t have any exchange insurers lined up for 2018 — due to Anthem’s earlier decision to limit coverage to just three counties — and that was still the case with Anthem’s exit.] Anthem also exited the exchange in Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, and Wisconsin at the end of 2017, and scaled back their participation in Georgia and California.
Health Plan of Nevada continued to offer coverage only in Nye, Clark, and Esmerelda counties, but with the announcement that Anthem and Prominence would exit the exchange at the end of 2017, there were no insurers lined up to offer coverage in 14 of the state’s 17 counties for 2018. This sounded worse than it was, since the vast majority of Nevada’s population is in Clark and Washoe counties. But for roughly 8,000 people who buy their own insurance in the 14 “bare” counties — which are mostly rural but include Carson City, with a population of 54,000 — the situation appeared dire.
Two additional insurers — Aetna and Silver Summit/Centene — had filed plans for 2018, but the filings were initially limited to Clark, Nye, and Washoe counties. But Aetna reversed course and decided in the summer of 2017 that they would not offer plans in Nevada’s exchange after all (and they also exited the off-exchange market at the end of 2017). This came on the heels of Aetna’s announcement that they had terminated their new Medicaid managed care contract in Nevada (the managed care contract called for Aetna to offer plans in the exchange — details below — but once the managed care contract was terminated, Aetna was free to withdraw their exchange plan filings, which they did).
The Nevada Division of Insurance explained that Aetna had experienced lower-than-expected enrollment in their new Medicaid managed care plan, and had thus decided to terminate the contract. Aetna noted that they could not “support a sustainable business” with the level of Medicaid managed care enrollment that had received. Since the reason they were planning to offer private plans in the exchange for 2018 was due to the Medicaid managed care contract, they withdrew those plans as well. [Aetna had completely eliminated their exchange participation nationwide as of 2018.]
But Nevada regulators continued to reach out to insurers in an effort to fill the bare counties, and their efforts were successful when Centene (Silver Summit) agreed to offer coverage in all 14 counties for 2018.
A press release from Governor Sandoval’s office included comments from various stakeholders in Nevada. Heather Korbulic, who was then the executive director of Nevada’s exchange, said “We are grateful that SilverSummit has stepped up to the plate, offering relief to thousands of residents who thought they would be deprived of access to health insurance. Thanks to Governor Sandoval’s tireless and unwavering commitment to ensuring access to health care for all Nevadans, individuals throughout the state will have access to qualified health plans.”
(It’s notable that this was the case in all of the potentially bare counties that popped up around the country during the rate filing process in mid-2017. Washington, Tennessee, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Ohio, Virginia, and Wisconsin were all facing potentially bare counties for 2018, but insurers — in many cases, Centene — stepped up to fill them. The vast majority of the counties in the US were never facing a dearth of insurers in the first place, and all of those that were facing bare areas were ultimately covered before the start of open enrollment.)
2019: Two insurers. Silver Summit/Centene continued to offer statewide coverage in 2019. They offered four plans in 2018, and that increased to six plans in 2019. Health Plan of Nevada also continued to offer exchange plans in 2019.
Anthem terminated all of their grandfathered plans in Nevada on December 31, 2018 (Nevada did not permit grandmothered/transitional health plans to be renewed after 2013). So in 2019, Anthem’s only individual market plans were off-exchange catastrophic plans.
2020: Three insurers. HMO Colorado (HMO Nevada/Anthem BCBS) rejoined the Nevada exchange for 2020, offering plans statewide. Silver Summit and Health Plan of Nevada also continued to offer plans in the exchange, giving people in some areas (Washoe, Clark, and Nye counties) three insurers from which to choose.
2021: Five insurers. The three existing insurers remained in the exchange, and were joined by two newcomers: Friday Health Plans (statewide) and SelectHealth (Clark and Nye counties).
2022: Seven insurers. The five existing insures remained in the exchange, and were once again joined by two newcomers: Aetna and Hometown Health Plan.
For perspective, here’s a look at how average premiums have changed over the years for plans sold in Nevada’s exchange (as always, these analyses refer to pre-subsidy rates; the changes in after-subsidy premiums can be very different):
2015: Average rate increase of 6.4%. The average rate changes ranged from a 6.9% decrease to a 24% increase.
2016: Average rate increase of 9.6%. But Anthem’s PPO option was new for 2016, and roughly a third of the exchange enrollees (who had coverage through the CO-OP or Time/Assurant in 2015) had to select coverage from a different carrier for 2016. For the remaining enrollees, the average premium increase within the exchange was 8.7% — but that’s assuming people didn’t shop around to find a better deal.
2017: Average rate increase of 10.6%. This was lower than the 15.02% that the carriers had initially requested. The overall average increase in Nevada ended up significantly lower than the national average of about 25%.
2018: Average rate increase of 36.8%. Two insurers offered plans in Nevada’s exchange for 2018. Silver Summit was new to the exchange for 2018, so there was no applicable rate change. Health Plan of Nevada, which was only available in Clark, Nye, and Washoe counties, increased their average premiums by 36.8% that year. Anthem had proposed a 62% average rate increase, but Anthem ultimately ended up withdrawing from the exchange at the end of 2017 (they rejoined as of 2020).
The rate increases for 2018 were based on the assumption that federal funding for cost-sharing reductions would not continue (the funding was ultimately terminated in October 2017). The additional cost to cover CSR was added to on-exchange silver plans in Nevada. For people who wanted silver plans but don’t receive a premium subsidy, off-exchange-only silver plans were available without the additional premium to cover CSRs, and there are also “extended” (expanded) bronze plans available (actuarial value of roughly 65%) that don’t have the CSR load included in their premiums.
2019: Average rate decrease of 0.4% in the exchange, but a slight increase for entire individual market. The two exchange carriers initially proposed average rate changes of 5.2% for Silver Summit and 0% (no rate change) for Health Plan of Nevada. But Silver Summit revised their filing in August, requesting an average decrease of 1.1%, so the final approved weighted average rate change for Nevada’s exchange was a decrease of 0.4%. For Nevada’s entire individual market, including carriers that only offer plans outside the exchange, average rates increased by about 0.4% for 2019. At ACA Signups, Charles Gaba noted that the average rates in Nevada would likely have declined by about 5% in 2019 if the individual mandate penalty hadn’t been repealed, and if the Trump administration hadn’t expanded access to short-term plans and association health plans.
2020: Average increase of 1.6% in the exchange; 1.9% outside the exchange. Three insurers offered plans in Nevada’s exchange for 2020: Health Plan of Nevada, SilverSummit, and HMO Colorado (HMO Nevada/Anthem BCBS). Their average approved rate increase was 1.6%.
HMO Colorado/HMO Nevada/Anthem offered coverage in Nevada’s exchange through 2017, but terminated their plans at the end of that year and did not offer coverage in 2018 or 2019. But their filing for 2020 noted that they would rejoin the exchange, statewide.
Sierra Health & Life, Hometown Health Plan (HMO), Hometown Health Providers (PPO), and Health Plan of Nevada offered plans in Nevada outside the exchange. Outside the exchange, the average rate increase for 2020 was 1.9%.
2021: Average increase of 4.2% in the exchange. In July 2020, the Nevada Division of Insurance published the average rate changes that insurers had proposed for 2021 (additional details here). At that point, the average proposed rate increase was 7.5%.
But by the time rates were finalized in late September, the average approved rate increase for the entire individual market (including off-exchange insurers) was 4.4%. On-exchange, the average approved rate increase for 2021 was 4.2%.
Two new insurers entered Nevada’s marketplace for 2021. Friday Health Plans, a Colorado-based company, began offering 2021 coverage statewide in Nevada’s exchange. And SelectHealth, which already offered individual market coverage in Utah and Idaho, began offering plans in Clark and Nye counties for 2021. There were a total of 50 plans available through Nevada Health Link for 2021, up from 27 that were available for 2020 (as noted above, the number of available plans has grown to 127 for 2022).
2022: Average increase of 4.2% in the exchange. In October 2021, the Nevada Division of Insurance published the approved rate changes. Most were the same as the insurers had proposed, although there were some modest changes during the rate review process. According to the DOI, the average rate increase on-exchange is 4.2%, while the average increase off-exchange is 4.9%:
- Health Plan of Nevada: 5% increase
- SilverSummit: 3.7% decrease
- HMO Nevada (HMO Colorado/Anthem): 8.4% increase
- SelectHealth: 0.1% increase
- Friday Health Plans: 2.1% increase
- Aetna Health: New to the market, so no applicable rate change
- Hometown Health Plan: 11.4% increase (new to the exchange, but plans already exist off-exchange)
Enrollment in Nevada’s exchange started out particularly low, given the exchange’s technical troubles in the first year. It grew substantially over the next few years, then declined in both 2019 and 2020. But it increased in 2021 and grew to a record high in 2022. Here’s a look at enrollment in private plans over the years (this does not count Medicaid enrollments through the exchange):
2014: Nevada Health Link extended its 2014 open enrollment period to May 30 for people who experienced technical difficulties during the regular enrollment period. A total of 45,390 people enrolled in private plans through the exchange — still short of their goal of 50,000 (which had been modified in early 2014, down from an original goal of 118,000).
2015: For 2015, everyone had to re-enroll from scratch, since Nevada was using the Healthcare.gov platform for the first time during the 2015 open enrollment period. But with a much better website, enrollment grew to 73,596 people for 2015.
2016: Enrollment in the Nevada exchange reached 88,145 for 2016. The process of renewing coverage for 2016 was much easier than it was for 2015; auto-renewal was available, and plan changes could be made by just logging back into an existing exchange account.
2017: The Nevada exchange ran an extensive marketing and outreach campaign leading up to the start of open enrollment for 2017 coverage. Enrollment grew by about 1% in 2017, reaching 89,061 people. This enrollment growth was in contrast with the average across all states that use HealthCare.gov, where average enrollment was down about 5% in 2017.
2018: The Nevada exchange once again ran an extensive outreach and marketing campaign before and during open enrollment for 2018 coverage, and enrollment continued to increase. 91,003 people enrolled in coverage through Nevada’s exchange during the open enrollment period for 2018 coverage.
2019: Year-over-year enrollment declined in 2019, for the first time in Nevada Health Link’s history. 83,449 bought private plans during open enrollment, which was about 8% lower than it had been in 2018. Across all states that use HealthCare.gov, enrollment was down about 4% for 2019, due to a variety of factors, including the elimination of the individual mandate penalty for 2019 and the expansion of short-term plans and association health plans as alternatives to ACA-compliant individual market coverage.
2020: Enrollment declined again in 2020, with 77,410 people signing up for individual health coverage during open enrollment.
2021: Enrollment grew to 81,903 people during the open enrollment period for 2021 health plans. And more than 17,000 people enrolled during the COVID/American Rescue Plan enrollment window, which continued through August 15, 2021.
2022: Enrollment hit a new record high, with 101,411 people signing up for coverage during open enrollment. Exchange enrollment hit a record high nationwide, due in large part to the American Rescue Plan’s subsidy enhancements.
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Public option legislation enacted in 2021; plans will be available for 2026
Nevada S.B.420, signed into law in June 2021, calls for the state to create a public option health plan that would be available in the individual market as of 2026, and possibly also in the small group market. Medical providers who contract with the Nevada Medicaid program or the Nevada Public Employees’ Benefits Program will be required to also contract with the public option, and reimbursement rates will be “comparable to or better than” the amount that Medicare pays providers.
Stakeholders will meet to work out the details over the coming years, but the public option will include at least one silver-level plan and one gold-level plan that will be available through Nevada Health Link. Premiums for the public option plan will initially (as of 2026) be 5% lower than the benchmark plan premium (as of 2024, adjusted by the Medicare Economic Index), and the program will target a 15% reduction in premiums over the next four years.
Vox’s Dylan Scott interviewed Nevada Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro about S.B420 prior to the passage of the bill; Cannizzaro explains the goals of the program and why it’s needed in Nevada. As has been the case with public option bills in other states, however, the idea is certainly not without controversy, and has drawn criticism from health care providers who worry that their reimbursement rates will be lower under the public option program.
Off-exchange plans no longer available year-round
The ACA created an open enrollment period for individual major medical health plans. State-run exchanges have the option to adjust the timing of the annual enrollment window, but all states have a limited enrollment window. And in every state except Nevada, that enrollment window has applied to plans purchased outside the exchange, just as it applies to plans purchased via the exchange.
But from 2014 through 2019, Nevada law required plans sold outside the exchange to be available for purchase year-round, with a waiting period of up to 90 days before the coverage would take effect. But Section 56 of Nevada SB482, enacted in 2019, eliminated the requirement that health plans be available year-round outside the exchange. The law took effect October 1, 2019, bringing Nevada’s rules into line with the rest of the country: Both on-exchange and off-exchange, individual major medical plans can only be purchased outside of open enrollment if the applicant has a special enrollment period triggered by a qualifying event.
The transition from HealthCare.gov to a fully state-run exchange platform
In 2014, Nevada ran its own exchange, which was fraught with technological problems. The following year, Nevada switched to using HealthCare.gov’s enrollment platform, but they kept the rest of the state-run exchange (Nevada Health Link) in place, retaining a significant amount of autonomy. That setup remained in place through 2019, but Nevada has now switched back to running its own exchange, including the enrollment platform.
The new system was live as of September 2019, and Nevada residents who were enrolled in 2019 coverage through HealthCare.gov were able to claim their account on Nevada Health Link’s site.
Enrollment in 2020 health plans in Nevada ended December 15, 2019 (people who began by that date were given until December 20 to finish the application process). This is the same schedule that HealthCare.gov used for the previous two years, so Nevada residents were already accustomed to the December 15 deadline. But Nevada Health Link opted to extend open enrollment for 2021 plans by a full month, and has now aligned their enrollment schedule with the newly extended schedule that HealthCare.gov is using as of 2022, with enrollment continuing through January 15.
The transition back to a fully state-run exchange: A history
There’s no legislative session in even-numbered years in Nevada, but in February 2018, the Nevada Legislature’s Interim Finance Committee approved $1 million in funding for Nevada Health Link to transition back to using its own website for enrollment, rather than HealthCare.gov, starting in the fall of 2019.
On March 19, 2018, Nevada Health Link issued a Request for Proposal, seeking bids from vendors who would create “an integrated online health insurance exchange technology platform and associated consumer assistance center,” which would be up and running by the fall of 2019, in time for the start of the seventh open enrollment period. The exchange unanimously selected GetInsured (VIMO Inc.) as the vendor that would orchestrate the transition to a fully state-based exchange, and manage the call center for the Nevada exchange (instead of using HealthCare.gov and the federal call center). The exchange anticipated that the transition would reduce technology operating costs by about 50% — from $12 million a year to about $6 million a year.
The federal government charged states like Nevada, which have state-run exchanges but use the HealthCare.gov enrollment platform, a fee equal to 2% of premiums in 2018. The government increased that fee to 3% in 2019, although is has since dropped to 2.25%. Nevada Health Link charged a fee of 3.15% as of 2020, but noted that this might be reduced in future years if the savings from the transition to a fully state-run exchange would make it sustainable to do so. The exchange uses the revenue from the fee to fund its own outreach and enrollment operations. Prior to 2020, most of the fee was used to pay for the HealthCare.gov services.
State's approach to MCOs bolstered insurer participation in exchange, albeit only in metropolitan areas
The entry of Silver Summit (and Aetna’s erstwhile plans to enter the exchange) to the exchange in 2018 was linked to the state’s process for approving Medicaid managed care contracts. Prior to 2017, Nevada required its Medicaid Managed Care vendors (MCOs) to offer at least one silver and one gold plan in the state’s exchange. In other words, access to Medicaid Managed Care business was not available for carriers that opted not to participate in the exchange. Anthem (AmeriGroup) and United (Health Plan of Nevada) both operated Medicaid Managed Care plans in Nevada prior to 2017, and offered plans in the exchange.
For 2017, the state decided to allow four Medicaid MCOs instead of just two (although with Aetna’s exit, they dropped to three). And while they eliminated the requirement that Medicaid MCOs also offer QHPs in the exchange, the Nevada Division of Insurance reported that during the process of selecting MCOs, the state added five additional points to the scores of insurers that indicated on their MCO proposal that they would also offer QHPs in the exchange (MCO contracts are awarded to the insurers that get the highest scores).
The Division of Insurance confirmed in early May that they expected all four of the state’s MCOs — Anthem, United, Silver Summit, and Aetna — to file rates and plans for 2018 QHPs that will be sold in the exchange, as a result of the information submitted during the MCO bidding process (note that Prominence, which exited the exchange at the end of 2017, did not have an MCO contract in Nevada).
But Aetna subsequently terminated their MCO contract and withdrew their exchange plans, and Anthem withdrew their exchange plans. I reached out to the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services to better understand Anthem’s position, which was to retain their Medicaid managed care contract, but exit the Nevada exchange. Basically, because it wasn’t mandatory for insurers to offer exchange plans, there was some wiggle room in the MCO contracts. And it turns out that the additional points for exchange participation weren’t really a significant factor after all. There were seven insurers that bid for MCO contracts, and there was enough of a point spread between the four insurers that won MCO contracts and the three that didn’t, that the four that won would have won even if they hadn’t received the additional five points for agreeing to offer exchange plans.
So essentially, Anthem would have won an MCO contract even if they hadn’t agreed to offer plans in the exchange, which is why their exit from the exchange didn’t hamper their MCO contract. This would also have been the case for Aetna, but as described above, their decision to terminate their MCO contract was made based on their initial MCO experience, rather than issues with entering the exchange.
United filed plans to continue to offer QHPs in Nevada’s exchange for 2018, and they did the same thing in New York, where a new regulation bars insurers that drop out of the exchange from participating in Medicaid managed care, Child Health Plus, or the state’s Essential Plan. Virginia is the only other state where United offered plans in the exchange in 2017, and they exited Virginia’s exchange at the end of the year. So the only states where United continued to offer exchange coverage in 2018 are states that have linked Medicaid managed care participation to participation in the exchange. United ended up having to rejoin the exchange in Massachusetts in 2019, also due to state rules. But United has voluntarily joined the exchanges in several states in 2022 and 2023.
The MCO contract bidding process indicated an effort on Nevada’s part to keep insurers in the exchange, and likely played a role in Silver Summit’s entry to the exchange and the preservation of insurer choice for most Nevada residents in 2018. However, there’s clearly an issue with localized versus statewide coverage. Rural areas have always been less attractive to insurers, and the extra points that Nevada awards to its MCO bidders who offer exchange plans does not require that those plans be available statewide. Silver Summit agreed to offer coverage in the rural areas in order to alleviate the bare county problem that Nevada was facing, but they were not required to do so.
As of 2022, there are four insurers that have MCO contracts in Nevada. Three of the four also offer plans through Nevada’s exchange, but one (Molina) does not.
No grandmothered plans in Nevada
Nevada’s Division of Insurance announced in late November 2013 that policies scheduled to end on December 31 could not be extended into 2014, and should instead be replaced with ACA compliant plans. Thus there was also no renewal available for pre-2014 plans heading into 2015, and all non-grandfathered plans in the individual market in Arizona are now ACA-compliant.
Nevada health insurance exchange links
NevadaHealthLink.com
855-768 5465
Silver State Health Exchange
Information about exchange planning and start-up operations
State Exchange Profile: Nevada
The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation overview of Nevadaʼs progress toward creating a state health insurance exchange.
Nevada Governorʼs Office for Consumer Health Assistance
Serves all residents with health-related issues; benefits, denials, insured, uninsured, worker’s compensation, and hospital billing.
(702) 486-3587 / Toll-Free: 1-888-333-1597 (nationwide)
Other types of health coverage in Nevada
In Nevada, short-term health insurance is limited to terms of no more than 185 days with no renewal.
Nevada's implemented ACA's Medicaid expansion – and Medicaid enrollment has grown by 161% since 2013.
New Nevada law gives Medigap enrollees an annual opportunity to switch to another plan.
Find affordable individual and family plans, small-group, short-term or Medicare plans.
Nevada does not have a Medicaid spend-down program, but a Miller Trust can be used to help people qualify for Medicaid long-term care benefits.
Learn about adult and pediatric dental insurance options in Nevada, including stand-alone dental and coverage through Nevada Health Link.