Idaho’s health insurance exchange is first to start open enrollment, as premiums set to rise

This week, Idahoans can start choosing or switching health insurance plans on the state’s exchange.

Idaho’s exchange, called Your Health Idaho, is the first in the country to start open enrollment. Insurance premiums on exchanges are expected to surge next year, unless Congress renews enhanced tax credits that deeply subsidize consumers’ monthly payments.

About 87 percent of the roughly 116,000 Idahoans who have insurance through the state exchange get the enhanced tax credits, according to a report by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Your Health Idaho Executive Director Pat Kelly urged Idahoans to “shop and compare to explore all of their health insurance options.”

Two weeks into the federal government shutdown, Congress is still deadlocked over temporary fundin