Plenty of data-hounds have been crunching numbers on health insurance premiums lately, based on the prices insurance companies quote on healthcare.gov and state marketplaces. Online brokerage EHealth (EHTH) has today published something new: a look at the prices people are actually paying to buy policies through its site.
Rather than just look at the rates insurers are offering, EHealth’s price index shows the average monthly premium of all the plans its customers purchased over the previous two weeks. Here’s a screenshot showing the index since October:
These are premiums for individual policies across the U.S. People buying on EHealth can’t get federal subsidies, so customers are bearing the full cost of the premiums.
The curve shows that people who signed up early bought the most expensive policies, paying more than $350 per month in October and early November. They probably represent pent-up demand from people with preexisting conditions who
