Rural residents pay more for exchange plans

Rural residents paid slightly higher premiums for exchange health plans than their city counterparts, reports Modern Healthcare. Meanwhile, Vermont's GOP leaders say they want the state's health insurance exchange to succeed, but residents are fed up with problems.

Modern Healthcare: Rural Residents Pay More for Exchange Plans Than City Dwellers
Rural residents paid slightly higher premiums on exchange plans in 2014 than their urban counterparts, according to a new analysis of plan filings. The average monthly premium for the second-cheapest silver plan, which is designed to cover 70% of medical costs, was $387 in rural counties, compared to $369 for urban counties. But those in states with a large percentage of rural residents, regardless of where they lived, saw significantly higher premiums this year. For states with less than 5% of residents living in rural counties, the average premium was $402. But for states where more than half of the population lived in rural counties, the average monthly premium was $452 (Demko, 8/5).

The Associated Press: Vermont GOP Leaders Want Health Reform
The three top Republicans in the Vermont Legislature said Tuesday they want the state's health care exchange to succeed but state residents are fed up with the problems the system is having and more options should be considered to ensure those problems are fixed. Lt. Gov. Phil Scott, Senate Minority Leader Joe Benning and House Minority Leader Don Turner spoke a day after the administration of Democratic Gov. Peter Shumlin announced the state is reducing its ties with CGI, the company that developed the problem-plagued Vermont Health Connect website (Ring, 8/5).