Why we should be worried about the ObamaCare marketplaces
The ObamaCare marketplace for health insurance has been closed and has been replaced by a federal-run system that is less costly, more efficient and has less of an impact on people with preexisting conditions.
And it’s likely that more Americans will be covered.
A new study finds that the ACA has worked for many Americans who previously could not afford insurance, and that more than one-quarter of people in their 30s and 40s now have health insurance.
The study is from the Kaiser Family Foundation.
It also shows that the system’s costs were significantly lower than expected, meaning that more people would have health coverage.
But the report’s authors said that the cost-sharing reduction payments the ACA provides to insurers to lower out-of-pocket costs are likely to continue to be an important part of the Affordable Care Act’s success, especially for younger people and those with higher incomes.
For many people who can’t afford insurance on their own, the ACA is a good investment, they say.
But it’s not a silver bullet for everyone, and the report says the current system has a long way to go.
Read more …
Kaiser Family and Kaiser Health News: Health Care Cost and Coverage Survey, August 2018, October 2018, September 2018.
Read the complete article.
A second Kaiser study, by the nonpartisan Urban Institute, finds that more young people are now covered by the ACA than the year before, and more of them are enrolled in a federal subsidy that’s helping them buy private insurance.
It finds that nearly half of young people in the 30-49 age group have insurance, compared to about a third in 2016.
That’s a significant improvement over a year ago.
The Urban Institute also finds that, overall, young people have been more likely to receive federal subsidies than their older counterparts, but that those subsidies are not enough to cover their full costs.
It concludes that the federal subsidies are only one reason for the rise in young people’s health insurance coverage, but the study also finds significant evidence of rising insurance costs.
This Kaiser report is available at: https://www.kff.org/assets/kff-wp-content/wp-files/HealthCare-Cost-and-Coverage-Survey-August-2018-2-5.pdf.
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