Report estimates impact of policy changes on 2019 exchange premiums

Premiums for 2019 qualified health plans in the individual health insurance market are about 6 percent higher than they would be without the effective repeal of the individual mandate penalty and the expansion of short-term and association health plans, according to a report released today by the Kaiser Family Foundation. “Adding the impact from the loss of cost-sharing reduction payments – which drove up silver premiums by an average of 10 percent according to the Congressional Budget Office – to the impact from individual mandate penalty repeal and expansion of more loosely regulated plans, this analysis suggests on-exchange benchmark silver premiums will be about 16 percent higher in 2019 than would otherwise be the case,” the authors said. AHA has expressed concern about the expansion of less comprehensive health coverage.