FILE - In this Nov. 13, 2013, file photo, Peter Lee, executive director of Covered California, the state's health insurance exchange, talks at a news conference in Sacramento, Calif. Monthly premiums will rise by an average of 8.7 percent next year for more than 1 million people in California who buy health insurance under former President Barack Obama's health care law. The rate increases announced Thursday, July 19, 2018, by Covered California are smaller than the double-digit increases seen in each of the last two years. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)
Covered California health insurance premiums are expected to rise by a statewide average of nearly nine percent in 2019, and that rate could have gone even higher.
Covered California Executive Director Peter Lee says one reason the increase isn’t larger is because of the good overall health of Californians.