Health Insurance More Affordable Under Obamacare

This is now the second year for open enrollments and the critics have one question – did Obamacare really make health insurance more affordable?When enrollments under the Affordable Care Act first started last year, it was difficult to decide about whether premiums were too high or lower as the site was malfunctioning and many people were losing plans they wanted to keep. Very soon the website got fixed and 8 million people enrolled for health care. The number of uninsured reduced from 16.4% to 11.3%. People were getting better plans and the exchanges had reduced the cost of health insurance.

This was not only because of Medicaid expansion, as states which did not participate in Medicaid expansion had many enrollments as Obamacare did not replace old plans – they instead created new plans with expanded coverage.

According to the author Anthony Orlando - studies on the premiums under Obamacare came to the conclusion that "On average, Obamacare clearly lowered the cost of health insurance." According to the evidence he found was that the average premium seemed to increase before subsidies and it increased because people were opting for more generous plans since they could now afford them.

Now in the second year of enrollments it is much easier to compare plans on the same level and found that the increase was about 2% on an average, and now with the second years data the comparison of the plans, the premiums and benefits are all on par and easier to compare.

The nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation has examined the "benchmark" silver plans in major cities in all 50 states, and they've found that the monthly premiums have increased 2 percent, on average, since last year. Before this for example, like 2 years back the health insurance costs were growing by 5-10% per year. In many cities premiums were actually falling and this was unheard of as premiums never fall, on a comparison 90% of the cities are paying much less after the subsidies on premiums.

After Obamacare health insurance has definitely become more affordable in the individual insurance market with better health care for millions of Americans.

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Reference: Anthony W. Orlando

Source-Medindia