Healthcare premiums to bonce 'about 75 percent' in red state if subsidies expire

The state of Idaho, which voted 66 percent for President Donald Trump, is one of the first states to see the benefits of its vote, according to the New Republic.

The ongoing government shutdown recently gave Idahoans a glimpse of life without Obamacare federal tax credits on the state’s Affordable Care Act portal.

“On average, gross premiums, or the overall cost of the premium, has gone up about 10 percent. And the net premium, or the amount the consumer pays after the tax credit has been applied, has increased about 75 percent,” said Your Health Idaho Executive Director Pat Kelly, according to New Republic writer Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling.

“So, those are averages across all of our enrollees, but it does give an indication of overall increase and then increase to what the consumer actually pays [without credits],” Kelly added.

The subsidies, created through the American Rescue Plan Act in 2021, allowed households making more than 400 percent of the federal poverty level to qualify for lowered premiums. That includes a single person making $62,600, or a family of four generating nearly $130,600 in revenue.

The New Republic reports Idaho has roughly 135,000 enrollees on the marketplace, more than 6 percent of the state population. Of those, about 13,000 fall within that salary bracket and are at risk of no longer receiving the credits should Congress fail to act.

Idaho is by no means the only state about to feel this pain, said Houghtaling. More than a dozen states have opened up their Obamacare marketplace for a window-shopping period, including California, Georgia, Kentucky, Nevada, Maryland, and Maine. The revealing peek let customers in those states see the new prices waiting for them should President Donald Trump and Republicans allow the subsidies to expire.

“People in Wyoming, West Virginia, Connecticut, and Illinois can expect the largest differential in their monthly premiums, rising anywhere from 535 percent to nearly 700 percent,” said Houghtaling.

The result could be a mass exodus from Obamacare plans that could leave four million Americans uninsured and hospitals struggling to afford uninsured patients.

Low-income regions of the country, including Mississippi, Tennessee and South Carolina will be particularly hard-hit.

Read the New Republic report at this link.