SHOMEBENEFITS.COM - Your Friends With Benefits

CBO Predicts Higher Premiums For ACA Plans, Lower Enrollment.

October 30 2017
The AP (9/14, Fram) reports that according to the Congressional Budget Office, average premiums for plans purchased through Affordable Care Act exchanges will increase by about 15 percent in 2018, mainly due to “marketplace nervousness over whether President Donald Trump will block federal subsidies to insurers.” The article says Trump has “repeatedly threatened” to eliminate ACA subsidy payments to insurers as part of his effort to roll back the healthcare law. The CBO added that premiums will also rise because of the “growing numbers of people living in regions where only one insurer sells policies, therefore facing less competition.” The Hill (9/14, Hellmann) reports that the insurance industry has “pleaded for more certainty on key ObamaCare payments called cost-sharing reduction subsidies, which reimburse them for giving discounts to low-income patients.” While the Trump Administration has been making the “payments on a month-to-month basis...insurers want them funded on a long-term basis.” Reuters (9/14, Humer) reports the CBO is also predicting that enrollment in ACA plans for 2018 will be lower compared to previous years because of “the Trump administration’s decision to pull back enrollment efforts.” The article says the Administration has cut spending on advertising, shortened the open enrollment period by 50 percent and reduced outreach. The piece adds that the CBO “now estimates that the average monthly enrollment on the exchanges will be about 11 million people, down about 4 million from last year’s forecast.” The Washington Examiner (9/14, Leonard) reports that the higher premiums will also “cause 2 million more people than expected to become uninsured between this year and next,” the CBO predicted. The increases are expected to impact “people who don’t have medical coverage through a job or the government and do not receive subsidies under Obamacare to pay for coverage.”