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The era of annual eye-popping Obamacare rate hikes appears to be over. Premium increases in the law’s marketplaces are on track to be relatively modest for the second straight year, according to the first batch of 2020 rates proposed by insurers. The rate filings are an early indication that this year’s small rate hikes weren’t a fluke and that other Trump administration policies — including support for a lawsuit that could torch the Affordable Care Act — have proven less disruptive than some experts feared. (Demko, 6/3)

Thousands of Kansas state employees won’t pay more for health insurance in 2020 for the first time in years after rounds of rate increases ratcheted up financial pressure on families. Employee contribution rates for health coverage will drop or remain flat next year, following a vote Monday by a key state commission. More than 39,600 people are enrolled in the plans.Some state government employees are contributing about double what they did just four years ago. Kansas shrank how much funding it provided for health coverage amid budget turmoil, but tax revenues are again climbing. (Shorman, 6/3)

Health insurers have proposed an average rate increase of less than 1% for the individual market after three years of double-digit rate increases in premiums. The proposed lowering of average rates to 0.96% is attributed to the stability of Washington’s individual market and should help people buying health insurance through the Washington Health Benefit Exchange, said Pam MacEwan, CEO of the Exchange. (Blethen, 6/3)

Claire Haas and her husband are at a health insurance crossroads. If they were single, each would qualify for a federal tax credit to help reduce the cost of their health insurance premiums. As a married couple, they get zip. “We talk about getting divorced every time we get our health care bills,” said Haas, 34, of Oakland. She has been married to her husband, Andrew Snyder, 33, for two years. “We kind of feel like we messed up. We shouldn’t have gotten married.” (Young and Ibarra, 6/3)

Lawmakers have agreed to continue a state program for “reinsurance” that’s been credited with helping keep a lid on premiums in the state’s market where individuals buy health insurance.The program extension won’t require additional money, state officials said, since the initial $542 million appropriation hasn’t yet been exhausted. Called the Minnesota Premium Security Plan, reinsurance provides a financial backstop for health insurers that happen to attract enrollees with unusually expensive health conditions by covering a large chunk of those medical bills. (Snowbeck, 6/3)

Gov. Brian Kemp’s administration selected consulting giant Deloitte on Monday to craft a plan that state leaders hope will ease health care coverage for more poor and middle-class Georgians under the Affordable Care Act. The governor’s office said Deloitte won the contract with a bid of $1.92 million, less than the $2.6 million the state budgeted for the process this year. (Bluestein, 6/3)

The state said Monday that it has picked Deloitte Consulting as the winner of an almost $2 million consulting contract to develop health care ‘’waivers’’ for Georgia’s Medicaid program and the private insurance market. Deloitte won over five other firms contacted by state officials to solicit proposals. Its bid of $1.92 million was less than the $2.6 million that the Georgia General Assembly authorized for the contract. (Miller, 6/3)

Gov. Tony Evers continues to push for the pillars of his state budget proposal despite a promise from Republican lawmakers to block them — this time, to expand Medicaid using federal funds. Evers and top members of his administration held a news conference on the steps of the state Capitol on Monday to announce a program aimed at boosting enrollment in health insurance plans. (Beck, 6/3)

And a new poll finds that even as the marketplaces stabilize, Americans still are struggling to afford care —

More than 1 in 4 Americans say they or a family member went without needed health care in the past two years because they felt they could not afford it, according to a new poll. The survey from Monmouth University released Monday finds that 27 percent of adults say they or a member of their household have avoided necessary medical care in the past two years because of cost. That figure is down slightly from 2017, when 31 percent said they had skipped care. (Sullivan, 6/3)