Washington, Aug. 19 (BUS) – Millions of people in the United States will be exempted from huge increases in health care costs next year after President Joe Biden signed a law extending generous subsidies to those who buy plans through federal and state markets. The Press (AP) reported.
The climate, tax, and universal health bill set aside $70 billion over the next three years to keep premium costs low for nearly 13 million people, before the discount prices ended in a record-breaking year—high inflation.
As the calendar approaches its November 1 open enrollment date, Sarah Cariano has been nervous about her work helping people across Virginia sign up for subsidized private health insurance on the HealthCare.gov website.
“I was expecting a very difficult conversation with people to explain why their premiums are so high,” said Cariano, a policy specialist with the Virginia Center for Legal Poverty.
However, the issuance of the “Inflation Reduction Act” eliminated those fears.
“Things are not going to change for the worse for the people who buy coverage through the market,” she said.
The bill would temporarily extend subsidies introduced last year when Congress and Biden signed a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill that dramatically lowered premiums and personal costs for customers who buy plans through the Affordable Care Act market. It also continues to reduce costs for more individuals and families living above the poverty line.
Only Democrats endorsed expanded support for health care and other proposals in the bill Biden signed on Tuesday. Republicans have criticized the measure as a major government overreach that will only exacerbate inflation. Indeed, economists say, the bill will do little to either quell or extinguish the fires of exorbitant prices.
Health insurance premiums on the market are expected to rise significantly next year — nearly 10 percent — according to an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Extended subsidies, which set premium payments based on income, will protect most people from these price increases, said Cynthia Cox, vice president of the foundation.
“In general, people shouldn’t see increases in their premiums,” Cox said.
Those who purchased plans on the state market saved an average of about $700 in premium payments from benefits this year, according to estimates by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
The Department of Health and Human Services announced that more people have signed up for coverage over the past year as costs have fallen, and the number of people without health insurance fell to an all-time low of 8% in August. Nearly 26 million people, 2 percent of whom are children, remain uninsured in the United States
In California, the state-run insurance market, of the 1.7 million people who buy health insurance through Covered California, will continue to see savings ranging from $29 to $324 per month, depending on their income level.
State officials expect about 220,000 lives to be saved from not covering the costs. Between 2 million and 3 million people in California may also turn to the state market if they lose coverage through Medicaid when the federal government’s COVID-19 public health emergency ends. Medicaid coverage has been extended to approximately 15 million people in the United States during the pandemic.
Cost is the biggest factor that drives whether or not a person enrolls for coverage, said Joseph Poindexter, senior director of health insurance programs at HealthCare Access in Maryland.
He said some parents, for example, enroll their children in Medicaid but skip buying coverage for themselves.
“It really is said to see people who are going to say, ‘I’m going to give up treatment, or I’m not going to see a doctor,'” Poindexter said.
Fewer people have had to make that calculation with subsidies, Poindexter said, and attributed the price drop to a 9% increase in new entrants in the state last year.
AOQ