Drop in number of insured would result in part because people would opt to go without coverage
The report, by the CBO and the Joint Committee on Taxation, said the number of insured would drop in part because of people opting to go without coverage once the requirement that most Americans have coverage or pay a penalty is repealed. Higher premiums would also prompt some people to opt to go without insurance.
.. Premiums in the individual market would tend to increase before 2020, rising up to 20% higher than under the ACA, in large part because of the demise of the penalty for not having coverage, based on the report. Premiums would then go down: In 2026, the average premiums for a single person in the individual market would be about 10% lower than under the health law now, the analysis found.
.. Republicans have been pitching their overhaul of the health law as a cure for high prices under the ACA, asserting that the proposal would drive down costs by encouraging competition and giving people more choice. To achieve that, GOP members aim to relax the requirement that insurers provide a certain array of benefits, allowing them to offer less generous plans that cost less, among other changes... The ranks of the uninsured would rise by 24 million in a decade in part due to a decline in the number of people on Medicaid, according to the CBO analysis. In 2026, an estimated 52 million people would be uninsured compared with 28 million who would lack insurance under the current ACA.
The Incredible Shrinking Obamacare
the law is poorly designed to induce younger, healthier people to get into the system. The penalties attached to the individual mandate are too weak. The subsidies are too small. The premiums are too costly. The deductibles are too high. Many doctors aren’t participating in the networks.
.. the exchanges are attracting sicker, poorer people, who drain money, and are not attracting the healthier people who pour money in.
.. 24 million Americans still lack health insurance. That means less competition. Before too long, a third of the exchanges will have just one insurer in them.
.. Blue Cross Blue Shield has requested a 62 percent increase for next year in Tennessee and an average 65 percent increase in Arizona. Some experts put the national requested increase at 23 percent.
.. “Obamacare’s insurance expansion is on the path to looking like other safety net programs we know, offering limited services to a predominantly low-income population.”
.. “The exchange population — 85 percent of which qualifies for financial assistance — looks a lot like the Medicaid population. And with it, we’re seeing the start of the Medicaid-ization of exchange plans: narrow networks with no frills.”