In a report released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the enrollment in the health insurance exchanges under the Affordable Care Act has been down by 1.2 million of unsubsidized enrollment in 2018.
Factors that can account for the massive drop in enrollees can be attributed to the increased price for premiums, which has happened under the Trump Administration. Between 2016 to 2018, 2.5 million enrollees who paid for their entire premiums, had dropped out of the markets, while for unsubsidized enrollment, there was a 40% drop within every state.
Between 2015 and 2016, 23 states had started to see the drop in the uninsured rate for unsubsidized insurance. Out of these 23 states, 10 of them had decline rates with the double digits. In 2017, a total of 43 states saw the steady decline in enrollment.
In a statement made by the CMS Administrator, Seema Verma, “Obamacare is failing the American people, and the ongoing exodus of the unsubsidized population from the market proves that Obamacare’s sky-high premiums are unaffordable.”
According to Affordable Care Act supporters, the numbers still reflects that the Affordable Care Act is still appealing to people. Leslie Dach, chair of the liberal advocacy group Protect Our Care states that “it clearly shows that the American people still want the quality coverage that the Affordable Care Act provides.”
Since the Affordable Care Act launched in 2014 under the Obama Administration, the insurance premiums have been steadily rising. In 2017, there was a spike in the premium costs when cost-sharing reduction payments were redacted by the Trump Administration in order to cancel out co-payments for people who could not afford to pay them.
Read the original article from Modern Healthcare here.
The post ACA Exchanges Down 1.2 Million of Enrollment appeared first on CHMB Inc..