Millions of Americans Could Face a Premium Surcharge Under the ACA Repeal Bill
<p>The repeal bill before the House of Representatives proposes to replace the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) individual requirement to have health insurance, or face a tax penalty, with a requirement to maintain continuous coverage. As the Commonwealth Fund’s Sara Collins and Munira Gunja explain in a new<em> To the Point </em>post, people with coverage gaps who apply for insurance in the individual or small-group markets could pay a one-year penalty equal to 30 percent of their premium. </p><p>According to the 2016 Commonwealth Fund Biennial Health Insurance Survey, an estimated 30 million working-age adults might have faced a premium surcharge if such a policy had been in effect last year. Older adults and people who live in regions where health care costs and premiums are higher—such as rural areas—would have the highest premium surcharges. Moreover, under the repeal bill moderate-income adults would be charged much higher penalties for having a coverage gap than they would under the ACA for not having insurance.</p>
http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/newsletters/ealerts/2017/mar/millions-of-americans-could-face-a-premium-surcharge Read the post