Variation and Trends in Medigap Premiums

Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation

The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) is the principal advisor to the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on policy development issues. It is responsible for major activities in the areas of legislative and budget development, strategic planning, policy research and evaluation, and economic analysis.

ASPE plans and conducts evaluations and research—both in‐house and through support of projects by external researchers—of current and proposed programs and of topics of particular interest to the Secretary, the Administration, and the Congress.

Office of Health Policy

The Office of Health Policy (HP) in ASPE focuses on health‐related issues, including public health, health care delivery, health insurance, and health care financing programs in the public (e.g., Medicare, Medicaid, State Children’s Health Insurance Program) and private sectors. It is responsible for health‐related policy development and analysis, budget review, assisting with the development of legislation, and review of regulations.

This report examines the variation in Medigap premiums, recent trends in premium growth and policies that experience relatively high premium growth. The report also compares the premium growth over different segments of the entire time period studied, and to changes in enrollment in both Medigap policies and the Medicare Advantage Program.