Insurance premiums under the Affordable Care Act will rate as "unaffordable" for almost 115 million people, using the law's own metric for affordability, according to a new study reported on by
The Weekly Standard.
More than 105 million Americans shopping for policies on the exchanges established under the ACA, and another 13.4 million individuals and families choosing insurance through their employers, will find themselves purchasing unaffordable care, according to the study from the
American Health Policy Institute.
The study reports that the law classifies large employer-based insurance as officially "unaffordable" when the premium costs a full-time employee more than 9.5 percent of his or her annual income.
But the minimum coverage requirements of the law have also prompted insurers to raise prices on the workplace plans they negotiate with large companies, and some of that additional cost is passed on to employees in the form of higher premiums, deductibles and out-of-pocket costs.
As a result, "Over 13 million employees with employer based coverage — 3.0 million with individual coverage, and 10.4 million with family plans — are now facing the prospect of 'unaffordable' health care," study authors Tevi D. Troy and D. Mark Wilson write.
The numbers will be much higher for people being steered to insurance through healthcare.gov and comparable state-sponsored exchanges, according to the report.
"Even now, under the Affordable Care Act’s own definition, over 105 million Americans will find plans in the ACA’s public exchanges to be 'unaffordable' when both premiums and deductibles are taken into account," the study reports.
"This number could grow even higher if the Supreme Court finds that federal exchanges cannot provide subsidies in the upcoming King vs. Burwell case," the authors write.
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