ACA Subsidies: More Expensive than Projected?

6/20/14
 
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from NCPA,
6/19/14:

A new government report indicates that the Affordable Care Act may cost considerably more than was projected, reports the Daily Caller.

Eighty-seven percent of Americans purchasing health coverage on the exchanges received subsidies from the government to offset the cost of their premiums.

– According to the Department of Health and Human Services, federal assistance lowered premiums for federal exchange enrollees by an average of 76 percent.
– What would normally be a monthly premium of $346, for example, cost enrollees just $82, with taxpayers paying the balance.

According to the report, the government will spend $11 billion on subsidies for health plans bought on the federal marketplaces. Notably, the figure does not include customers who enrolled in plans via state exchanges.

If subsidy spending on the state exchanges is comparable to the assistance that federal enrollees received, subsidies could cost more than $16.5 billion just this year, much higher than the $10 billion cost estimated by the Congressional Budget Office.

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