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Texas Obamacare Plans Cost More in Big Cities Than in Rural Areas

A new report suggests that Texas residents in big cities will pay slightly more than those in more rural areas for health insurance plans on the federal marketplace.
healthcare.gov
A new report suggests that Texas residents in big cities will pay slightly more than those in more rural areas for health insurance plans on the federal marketplace.

Open enrollment for health insurance on the federal marketplace begins on Saturday. A new reportsuggests that if they buy a plan through the marketplace, Texas residents in big cities will pay slightly more than those in more rural areas.

The report by the Episcopal Health Foundation and Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy looks at silver-level plans across all of Texas. The silver level is the second most expensive and the most popular in the state.

"We thought that the more competitive markets with more insurers would have lower premiums but it turns out they have slightly higher monthly premiums than markets with fewer insurers," says Dr. Vivian Ho, one of the researchers and the chair in health economics at Rice’s Baker Institute.

Ho says that might be because insurers expect people in cities to be less healthy. The researchers also found significant variation in the number of hospitals included across plans.

For coverage in 2015, more insurers and more plans will be available on healthcare.gov, but this year’s enrollment period is much smaller than last year. It runs from Nov. 15 to Feb. 15.

Texas has the highest rate of uninsured residents in the U.S.

Copyright 2014 KUT 90.5

Veronica Zaragovia reports on state government for KUT. She's reported as a legislative relief news person with the Associated Press in South Dakota and has contributed reporting to NPR, PRI's The World, Here & Now and Latino USA, the Agence France Presse, TIME in Hong Kong and PBS NewsHour, among others. She has two degrees from Columbia University, and has dedicated much of her adult life to traveling, learning languages and drinking iced coffee.