Michael Tanner of the Cato Institute devotes his latest National Review Online column to the latest bad news for the Affordable Care Act.
[Tuesday] marked the first day of the Affordable Care Act’s latest open-enrollment period. Millions of Americans now once again have the opportunity to wade through the usual assortment of computer glitches and choose from an increasingly limited number of overpriced insurance plans. Unsurprisingly, it looks like a great many of them will simply choose not to do so.
Even the Department of Health and Human Services, which is trying to put the best spin on the situation, estimates that barely 11.4 million people will be enrolled in exchange-based plans in the average month next year — fewer than half of the 24 million people that the Congressional Budget Office projected as recently as March.
Worse, most of those signing up will be older and sicker than average, leading to the sort of “adverse selection” that has forced insurance companies to either hike their premiums or drop out of the market altogether. In those states for which HHS had data, premiums for the benchmark Silver plans are expected to rise an average of 22 percent. In Arizona, the premiums on the benchmark plan for a 27-year-old will increase as much as 116 percent. In Oklahoma, premiums for the equivalent plan will spike by 69 percent, and in Tennessee and Minnesota they’ll spike by about 60 percent. Eleven other states could see premium increases of 40 percent or more.
And higher premiums are just part of it. Deductibles and copayments are increasing as well. The average deductible for a family with a Silver plan now exceeds $7,400. Total annual out-of-pocket costs can approach $13,000. If you try to reduce premiums by purchasing a cheaper Bronze plan, your family’s deductible will rise correspondingly to an average of $12,393.
