The southwest Georgia region stood out as an outlier when premiums for the state’s insurance exchange were announced last year.

That area’s insurance rates were much higher than the rest of the state — about twice as high as metro Atlanta’s.

Reasons for the premium differential, GHN reported,  included just one insurer offering exchange coverage in southwest Georgia; the area’s high rate of people with chronic disease; and the lack of competition among health care providers.

A Washington Post/Kaiser Health News article Saturday explored the region’s exchange premiums, interviewing Lee Mullins, who builds custom swimming pools there.

A midlevel health plan for his family of four costs $2,654 a month there, journalist Jordan Rau reported.

A similar plan in Pittsburgh, though, would cost Mullins $940 a month.

Here’s the Post/Kaiser story on the expensive premiums in southwest Georgia.