Covered California To Announce 2016 Rates

Covered California will announce its 2016 health insurance rates Monday.

Nearly 2 million people have signed up for the state’s health exchange program since 2014. Beth Capell is with the consumer advocacy group Health Access. She says Covered California has done a good job of holding rate increases in check.

"Covered California has the ability to bargain with health insurers over the rates and they have done that energetically so far," she says.

Capell says last year Covered California rates increased only 4 percent, which is about half the typical increase consumers experienced in the decade before. 

She says the Affordable Care Act also gives consumers the chance to shop around if they’re unhappy with the new price of their plan.

Open enrollment begins in the fall. The new rates will take effect in January.