It looks like Massachusetts got hit hard by the Obama administration 2015 cuts to public Part C health care plans as mandated by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (Obamacare) as amended.
On an apples to apples basis -- comparing plans that would have received no bonus this year and would receive none next year -- it looks like the cuts are as high as 7% in Boston (and Chelsea) with no cut in the Berkshires. But all leading Massachusetts insurers participating in Part C are good enough to receives a bonus so I tried to compare a 2014 4-star plan to a 2015 mid-level quality plan (but note that Health New England is one of the top 20 plans in the country). No matter how you cut it, there will be cuts because the worst capitation rate in 2014 is still better than the best in 2015.
It's hard to compare 2015 with 2014 because as usual the Federal government changed formats in how it presented the final county by country capitation fee amounts1. And capitation-fee cuts do not automatically mean the affected insurers -- primarily Blue Cross, Fallon, Health New England and Tufts (and to a much lesser degree Harvard) -- will raise premiums proportionately. They may also reduce benefits, raise co-pays or raise the annual out of pocket (OOP) spending limit, or do a combination of all of the above.
It is hard to see how they could not do at least some of the above because they are all non-profit organizations and are already running a tight ship (ha ha).
1The Obama administration formatting -- perhaps intentionally -- is so confusing that perhaps I have it bass ackwards. But I don't think so. Also, as I have posted often, I beleive the differences between per-person Part C captiation fees and traditional fee for service per-person average payments should be equal. But these cuts -- if they translate proportionally -- will probably but Part C enrollees back at the disadvantage they suffered prior to 2005.