Insurance Rate Review Journal Assignment
One website. Your home state plus a few neighbors. A 1–2 page journal entry written in first person. Straightforward — until you realize you don’t know what the “recommended threshold” actually is, what to look for on the site, or how to write up findings in first-person APA format. This guide clears all of that up.
This assignment looks simple on the surface. Go to a website, look up some rates, write about what you find. But a lot of students stall at the same three spots: they can’t figure out what they’re actually looking for on the site, they don’t know what “above the recommended threshold” means in concrete terms, and they’re not sure how to write a first-person journal entry that still meets APA citation requirements. This guide addresses all three.
What This Guide Covers
Assignment Requirements at a Glance
Before anything else, read those instructions carefully. There are more specific requirements here than the assignment length suggests. The format details — font, spacing, margins — are graded. The citation requirement is real even for a short informal journal. And “surrounding states” is not optional.
Assignment Checklist
Step 1: Using the Healthcare.gov Rate Review Tool
The tool the assignment references is part of the ACA’s transparency infrastructure. Under the Affordable Care Act, insurers proposing significant premium increases must submit those increases for federal or state review — and that data is publicly accessible. That’s what you’re navigating.
Start at the Right URL — Then Know What You’re Looking At
Go to CMS.gov’s Rate Review page if the companyprofiles.healthcare.gov link redirects or is unavailable. CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) publishes rate review data including proposed increases, insurer names, state, and whether the increase has been reviewed and upheld or modified. The data is organized by state and plan year, so you can filter for your home state and nearby states.
What you’re looking for: Insurers who submitted proposed rate increases of 10% or more, which triggers the federal rate review process. You want the company name, the state, the proposed percentage increase, and — if available — whether it was reviewed and what happened as a result. All of that goes into your journal entry.The healthcare.gov tool has been updated multiple times since the ACA’s launch. If companyprofiles.healthcare.gov redirects or doesn’t show rate data, use the CMS rate review program page directly. The data is the same — CMS is the federal agency that administers the ACA’s rate review program. Cite whichever URL you actually use to retrieve the data, not the one in the assignment instructions if it redirected you.
Navigate to the Rate Review Tool or CMS Rate Review Page
Open companyprofiles.healthcare.gov or CMS.gov’s rate review portal. Note the date you accessed it — you’ll need that for your APA citation.
Select Your Home State First
Filter for your home state. Look at the list of insurers, their proposed rate changes, and whether the change exceeded 10%. Document the insurer name, the percentage increase requested, and the plan year the data covers.
Repeat for At Least Two Surrounding States
The assignment asks for surrounding states — check two or three neighbors. You want enough data to make a comparison. Do the same thing: find any insurers with proposed increases above 10%, note the company name, the percentage, and the state.
Screenshot or Note the Specific Data Before You Close the Page
Don’t rely on memory. Write down or screenshot the insurer names, states, and rate percentages you’re going to discuss. You’ll need exact figures for your journal entry — and you need the URL and access date for your citation.
Step 2: Understanding the Rate Increase Threshold
The assignment tells you to look for companies “increasing their rates above the recommended threshold” — but it doesn’t define what that threshold is. You need to know this going in, because it’s what separates a reportable rate increase from a routine one.
Any Proposed Increase of 10% or More Triggers Federal Review Under the ACA
Under the Affordable Care Act, health insurers must submit proposed premium increases of 10% or more for review by either their state insurance commissioner or CMS (if the state doesn’t have an effective review program). This 10% mark is the threshold the assignment is referencing. Proposed increases below 10% are not subject to the same mandatory federal review process — they’re not automatically flagged in the rate review database the same way.
What to note: A proposed increase above 10% doesn’t mean it was approved at that level. The review process can result in the insurer revising the increase down, being required to justify it further, or in some states, having it rejected. If that outcome data is available in the tool for the insurers you’re looking at, include it — it adds depth to your journal entry.The rate review tool shows proposed increases — what the insurer asked for — alongside the review outcome if available. Your journal should be clear about which you’re reporting. “Company X proposed a 14% rate increase” is accurate. “Company X raised rates by 14%” may or may not be true depending on whether the increase was approved as submitted. That distinction matters for the accuracy of your findings report.
Step 3: Reading and Interpreting the Rate Data
Once you’re in the tool, you’ll see a table of insurers, states, plan years, and proposed rate changes. Here’s what each column means and what you should pull out for your journal.
| Data Field | What It Means | What to Do With It |
|---|---|---|
| Insurer / Company Name | The health insurance company submitting the rate change | Name it explicitly in your journal — don’t be vague |
| State | The state where the rate change applies | Confirm this matches your home or surrounding state search |
| Proposed Rate Change (%) | The percentage increase the insurer is asking for | Compare against the 10% threshold — this is your key data point |
| Plan Year | The coverage year the rate applies to | Include in your journal to contextualize the data temporally |
| Review Status / Outcome | Whether the increase was reviewed, approved, modified, or rejected | Include if available — it shows how the regulatory process works |
| Review Type | Whether reviewed by the state or federally by CMS | Useful context for discussing state vs. federal oversight in your journal |
That’s Also a Valid Finding — Report and Interpret It
If your home state and surrounding states show no proposed increases above 10% for the current plan year, that’s still a finding. Report it as such: note what you searched, what the data showed, and consider why that might be the case — state-level regulation, competitive insurance markets, or a particular plan year’s enrollment patterns. A null finding is still a finding, and a journal entry that interprets it thoughtfully is stronger than one that panics about having “nothing to report.”
Alternative approach: If current year data is limited, look at recent plan years available in the tool. The assignment doesn’t specify the current plan year — it asks you to use the tool and report what you find. If data for the most recent year is incomplete, use the most recent complete data available and note which plan year you’re referencing.Step 4: Writing the Journal Entry — What to Include and Where
A journal entry is not a research paper. It’s not a policy brief. It’s a structured first-person reflection on what you found and what it means to you as a student learning about health policy. Informal doesn’t mean unorganized — it means conversational, personal, and direct.
Opening, Findings, Interpretation — In That Order
Start by briefly describing what you did: which tool you used, which states you searched, and what you were looking for. That orients the reader and demonstrates you followed the assignment instructions. Then report your specific findings — named insurers, states, percentages. Be exact. Then reflect on what those findings mean: what does it tell you about insurance regulation in your region? Does it affect people’s access to coverage? What surprised you, if anything? That’s the interpretation layer that turns a data summary into a journal entry.
Page allocation: With 1–2 pages double-spaced, you have roughly 400–800 words. Opening: 1–2 sentences. Findings: 2–3 paragraphs with specific data. Interpretation/reflection: 1–2 paragraphs. Citation at the end. That’s the whole paper. Don’t pad it with background on the ACA unless your word count is low.What to Cover in Your Findings Paragraph(s)
- Which states you searched and in what order
- How many insurers you found with proposed increases above 10%
- The specific company names and percentage increases (exact figures)
- The plan year the data covers
- Whether the increases were reviewed by the state or CMS
- Any outcome data available (was the increase approved, modified, denied?)
- Any pattern you noticed across states — were some states’ markets more active than others?
What to Cover in Your Interpretation Paragraph(s)
- What the above-threshold increases suggest about cost pressures on insurers in your region
- What the rate review process means for consumer protection — does it actually check insurer power?
- Your reaction: did anything surprise you about the data?
- Any implications for access to healthcare — what does a 15% rate increase mean for someone buying individual coverage?
- How this connects to what you’ve been studying in your health policy or public health course
Writing in First Person With APA Citations — How Both Work Together
Here’s where students get confused. “First person” and “APA format” feel like they belong in different categories. Academic papers feel like they should be third person. Journals feel like they shouldn’t need citations. This assignment is both — informal first-person tone, with APA citations for any external data.
Your Voice, Cited Evidence — They Coexist Fine
First person just means using “I” instead of “the researcher” or “this paper examines.” You can write “I found that [Company X] in [State] proposed a 14% rate increase for the 2024 plan year” and then add the APA in-text citation after the factual claim — “(Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services [CMS], 2024).” Your voice is first person. The citation establishes that the data came from a verified source. Both are present in the same sentence. That’s all it is.
What needs a citation: Any specific rate figure, company name, or factual claim drawn from the healthcare.gov tool or CMS website needs a citation. Your interpretation and reflection do not need citations unless you’re referencing a specific policy provision, statistic, or concept from an external source.Here’s the pattern — note this is just a structural example, not real data to copy:
“I searched the CMS rate review tool for [my home state] and two surrounding states. I found that [Company Name] in [State] submitted a proposed rate increase of [X]% for the [year] plan year, which exceeds the 10% federal review threshold established under the Affordable Care Act (CMS, 2024). This increase was [reviewed by the state / referred to CMS for review], and [outcome if available].”
That’s first person, that’s specific, and that’s cited. One sentence does all three jobs at once.
Author / Agency, Year
For CMS or healthcare.gov data: (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services [CMS], year) on first use, then (CMS, year) after. Include the year the data was retrieved or published.
Government Website Format
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. (year). Rate review. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Retrieved [Month Day, Year], from [URL]
Required for Government Sites
APA 7th requires a retrieval date for pages that may be updated — government data portals qualify. Record the date you accessed the tool when you first visit it.
Formatting — Getting the Word Document Right
The formatting requirements are explicit. Don’t lose points here — this is the easiest part of the assignment to get right if you set it up before you start writing.
Word Document Setup Checklist
- Font: Times New Roman, 12-point — change this in Format > Font before you type anything
- Spacing: Double spaced — Format > Paragraph > Line Spacing > Double
- Margins: One inch on all sides — Layout > Margins > Normal (1″)
- No cover sheet — the assignment says you don’t need one. Don’t add one.
- Your name and date — put these at the top of the document if no cover sheet is required, or check what your instructor expects
- References section — even for a 1–2 page journal, your APA reference list goes at the end, on its own paragraph after the body text (you don’t need a new page for a journal, but keep it separate)
APA Specifics That Apply to Journals Too
- In-text citations appear immediately after the claim they support — not at the end of the paragraph
- The reference list is alphabetical by author’s last name (or agency name for government sources)
- Hanging indent for references: first line flush left, subsequent lines indented 0.5 inches
- No bold or underline in references — italics for the title of the webpage or report
- Include the DOI or URL for web-based sources — both are current APA 7th practice
- If you accessed the CMS data on a specific date, include “Retrieved [Month Day, Year], from” before the URL
The assignment instructions state that students “will lose points for improper grammar, punctuation and misspelling.” That’s not standard boilerplate — it’s a graded criterion. Read your journal out loud before submitting. Spell-check catches typos but misses wrong word choices (“their” vs. “there”), run-on sentences, and comma splices. If writing mechanics is a known weak spot, give yourself time to proofread rather than submitting immediately after drafting.
Mistakes That Cost Marks
Not Knowing What the Threshold Is
Saying an increase is “above the recommended threshold” without knowing or stating that the threshold is 10% means your findings report has no analytical grounding. The reader doesn’t know whether a 6% increase is flagged or a 12% increase matters.
Name the Threshold Explicitly in Your Journal
State early in your journal what the threshold is and where it comes from — the ACA’s rate review provision, administered by CMS. Then apply it when you report each insurer’s proposed increase. That shows you understand the regulatory framework, not just the data.
Reporting Vague Findings
“Some insurers in my state proposed high rate increases.” That’s not a finding — it’s a vague observation. It doesn’t name anyone, doesn’t give a figure, and can’t be cited or verified.
Name the Insurer, the State, and the Exact Percentage
“[Company Name] in [State] proposed a [X]% increase for the [Year] plan year, exceeding the 10% federal review threshold.” That’s a finding. It’s specific, citable, and directly responsive to what the assignment asked.
Skipping the Citation Because It’s a Journal
The assignment explicitly says to cite resources from websites or articles. “Informal” refers to tone and format — not to whether citations are required. A journal with data and no citations loses marks on the citation criterion.
Cite Every Data Point From the Tool
Every specific rate figure, company name from the database, or factual claim sourced from CMS or healthcare.gov needs an in-text citation. Your reference list needs the full APA entry for the website. Keep it simple — one well-formatted source entry covers all the data you pull from that site.
Checking Only Your Home State
The assignment asks for your home state AND surrounding states. If you only search one state, you’re not following the instructions — and you lose the comparative dimension that makes the journal more analytical.
Search Three or More States and Compare What You Find
Check your home state plus at least two neighbors. Note whether the rate increase patterns are similar or different across states. That comparison — even if brief — shows analytical engagement with the data rather than a mechanical report of one state’s figures.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Public Health Assignment Help Get StartedThe Data Is the Easy Part — The Interpretation Is What Gets Graded
Anyone can go to a government website and copy down a rate increase figure. What the assignment is actually testing is whether you can look at that data and say something meaningful about it. Why does it matter that an insurer in your state proposed a 13% increase? What does that mean for people buying individual coverage? What does the rate review process actually do — does it protect consumers, or does it mostly approve what insurers ask for?
Those questions are what your reflection paragraphs should be answering. Not necessarily with definitive policy conclusions — you’re a student, not a regulator — but with genuine engagement with what the data suggests. That’s the difference between a journal entry that fills the page count and one that earns the marks.
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