Two Montana health research groups are warning that health insurance premiums through the Affordable Care Act marketplace could skyrocket if enhanced subsidies are not extended.
One side says Congress needs to handle the enhanced subsidies now.
Watch the debate below:
The other says there is time until the end of the year.
If Congress does not extend those subsidies, some say the premium increases could double, triple, and even quadruple.
“It's expensive to get insurance now as it is,” said Heather O'Loughlin, executive director for the Montana Budget and Policy Center in Helena.
A Cato Institute article makes reference to a Pargaon Health institute report that states:
“Most premium tax credits are paid in advance, directly to insurance companies, to lower the monthly premium bill. These direct subsidies allow the insurance company to shift a vast majority of rising premiums onto taxpayers.”
And an American Enterprise Institute article states: “The healthcare debate is too focused on expanding coverage and insufficiently focused on reducing health-care spending.”
O’Loughlin is watching Congress closely, waiting to see what the fallout will be if subsidies are dropped.
“With these increased costs, we're worried about a significant loss of healthcare coverage and increase in uninsured rate over time," she said.
The center is looking at insurance company costs, for example, for a family of four with two young children.
“A silver plan, they'd be paying roughly $417 a month for the entire family this year,” O’Loughlin said. “Without those enhanced premium tax credits and estimated increased rate costs, that same family would be paying over $1,000 a month.’
KFF, which conducts health policy research, estimates a couple in their 60s in Billings will see premiums increase from $600 a month to nearly $2,900.
“Montana is certainly not different than the rest of the country,” said Matt McGough, policy analyst in KFF’s program in the Affordable Care Act. “Marketplace individuals who receive coverage through these marketplaces are going to be feeling the effects.”
Consumers may be feeling the effects in just a few weeks as open enrollment for healthcare starts Nov. 1.
“Without these enhanced subsidies, some people are still going to be eligible for some tax credit,” said McGough. “But they're going to see a price that is drastically different than what they were paying in the past few years.”
Congress has not come any closer to an agreement.
“This is an absolute 100 percent red herring,” said Rep. Mike Johnson, R-Speaker of the House. “Everyone in Congress knows and the Democrats know as well, even the ones making this crazy argument, that is a provision that does not expire until the end of December. Dec. 31.”
“I trust no Republican's word as long as Donald Trump is saying that he refuses to extend health care tax subsidies,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.
According to the Cato Institute, “if expanded subsidies expire, the average enrollee at 150 percent of the poverty line would be expected to pay less than $15 per week for a subsidized plan (8 percent of the total cost, the rest paid by taxpayers).
