GREEN BAY - Brown County will see twice the number of health insurance companies selling health insurance plans on the federal marketplace when Affordable Care Act insurance enrollment opens Friday,

Common Ground Healthcare Cooperative and Molina Health Insurance sold health plans on the market in 2019. This year, they are joined by Children's Community Health Plan and Dean Health Plan.

"It never hurts when there's more providers available, let's put it that way," said Todd Catlin, a co-owner of Transition Health Benefits, a Brookfield-based insurance broker.

More health plans on the market means companies must keep rates low to attract and keep customers, Catlin said.

This is leaps and bounds from where Brown County was in 2018, when only Common Ground Healthcare Cooperative was selling on the market. Catlin said the main concern for his Brown County clients was the lack of competition and high rates.

Rates are dropping

When the ACA's federal marketplace was implemented in 2014, health insurance rates jumped, Catlin said. Rates jumped in large part because the ACA, also known as Obamacare, required health plans to provide better coverage and because the law required health insurers to cover people with pre-existing health conditions.

"The marketplace has kind of stabilized last year into this year," Catlin said. "The companies have all made money. You've seen the rates dropping last year. They're dropping again this year."

Final rates for 2020 will be released on Friday.

People who buy plans on the marketplace set up under the Affordable Care Act are eligible for subsidies if their household incomes are below 400% of the federal poverty threshold. That's a maximum income of $49,960 for an individual and $103,000 for a family of four.

What plan people choose may ultimately come down to which hospitals, doctors and other health care providers are in their networks, Catlin said.

"It's probably going to come down to what providers those companies use," Catlin said.

The stabilizing marketplace is partially why health insurers are expanding into Brown County and other new markets. Molina Healthcare will cover 22 additional Wisconsin counties, while Children's Community more than doubled the number of counties it serves.

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The choices

Common Ground Healthcare Cooperative

A nonprofit based in Brookfield, Common Ground Healthcare Cooperative has been selling Brown County health insurance plans since 2014.

Its provider network includes Aurora Health Care, BayCare Clinic, Bellin Health Partners, Door County Medical Center and ThedaCare.

Common Ground covered 7,500 people in 2019 in Brown County, a decrease from 8,500 members in 2018, Common Ground marketing specialist Gabrielle Davies said.

Davies said Common Ground is lowering rates by 9% by 2020.

Davies thinks the increased competition in Brown County is good for consumers.

"Generally, over the long term, more competitors are good for consumers to have more choices, but that assumes that health plans stay in the marketplace and don’t abandon the marketplace when times get tough," Davies said.

Children's Community Health Plan

Based in Milwaukee through Children's Wisconsin, Children's Community Health Plan offers health insurance plans for both children and adults. It began selling plans on the marketplace since 2017.

Children's Community providers include the Children's Wisconsin, Ascension, Door County Medical Center, the Medical College of Wisconsin, Bellin Health and independent providers.

Children's Community requested a 16.78% rate decrease statewide for 2020, according to ratereview.healthcare.gov.

"In our fourth year, we just decided that we know what we're doing, and we're doing it well. We wanted to expand and serve additional members in additional counties," said Danielle Coterel, Children's Community director of product development and sales.

Children's Community expansion moves it into other counties served by its existing network of health care providers.

"We're just excited that the marketplace is stabilizing. We're excited that consumers are going to have more options for healthcare coverage in their communities," Coterel said.

Dean Health Plan

Dean Health Plan, based in Madison, partnered with Prevea360 to sell health plans on the marketplace for Brown County. The insurer sold health plans to individuals and families last year in the county, but not on the ACA marketplace.

"Relative to other carriers, we think we'll be competitive. We won't know for sure until open enrollment starts," said Dan Hounchell, a Dean vice president..

Dean requested a 7.59% rate increase statewide, according to ratereview.healthcare.gov.

Dean is a local insurance provider for SSM Health, a Catholic nonprofit health care system based in St. Louis.

Molina Healthcare

Molina Healthcare is a publicly traded company based in California.

"Molina Marketplace plans offered in existing counties will see premium rate reductions by an average of more than 9% in 2020," Molina Healthcare said in an emailed statement.

Its providers include Ascension, Aurora Health Care, Door County Medical Center, Children's Hospital of Wisconsin and Hospital Sisters Health Systems.

Contact Nusaiba Mizan at (920)-431-8310 or nmizan@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @nusaiblah.

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