美国国家公共电台 NPR Rates Up 22 Percent For Obamacare Plans, But Subsidies Rise, Too

Rates Up 22 Percent For Obamacare Plans, But Subsidies 1 Rise, Too

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Rates for health insurance purchased through an Obamacare exchange are going up next year. The Department of Health and Human Services said today that the average rate would rise 22 percent on healthcare.gov and state-based insurance marketplaces. But the administration took pains to stress that the tax credits most people receive will rise, too, and offset 3 the premium 4 increases. For more on this, we're joined by NPR health policy correspondent Alison Kodjak. Alison, hi.

ALISON KODJAK, BYLINE 5: Hi, Robert.

SIEGEL: What information exactly did the Obama administration put out today?

KODJAK: Well, open enrollment 6 for the Affordable 7 Care Act insurance starts next week on November 1. So what they opened today was what's called window shopping. People can go online and compare health plans, see the benefits and also see the costs. They can compare prices. So all the details of what plans are offered in different states is out there for people to look at today.

SIEGEL: And the prices are going up. Is this bad news for the Affordable Care Act and the people who use it?

KODJAK: Well, it's certainly not good news for anybody. But how bad it is will depend on where you live and how much money you make. The increases are very varied 8 from state to state. Some are seeing really huge increases. Like in Arizona, the benchmark rate is more than doubling. That's the rate for what they call a silver plan. But in some other states like in Ohio, it's only increasing by about 2 percent.

If you qualify for subsidies, which means you're lower income, those subsidies will also go up. So you might not see a huge increase in what you have to pay. If you're a higher income and are buying through this insurance, you're going to see the full rate increase.

SIEGEL: There have been a number of stories over the past several months about companies quitting Obamacare. Is that showing up now that people can start comparing plans?

KODJAK: Yeah, it is showing up quite a bit. There are three major insurers - United Health Care, Aetna and Humana - who pulled back from offering insurance pretty dramatically last year, and that left some places where people have really very few choices in insurance.

At least five states, including, like, Alabama, Oklahoma, have only one company offering insurance throughout this whole state, and there are a lot of other individual counties that only have one insurance company. Sometimes they're offering multiple plans so people can choose between two Aetna plans or two Blue Cross plans, but there's not as much competition out there as I think the administration would like to be seeing.

SIEGEL: Opponents of the Affordable Care Act have attacked the program in part for rising premiums 9. It's obviously a very divisive political issue. What do the presidential candidates say they'll do about it?

KODJAK: Well, you know, it's coming down pretty much on party lines like it has over the many years that Obamacare has been around. Donald Trump 10, like most Republicans, has said he's going to fully 11 repeal 12 the Affordable Care Act. At this point it's been in place for several years, and a lot of people have insurance through it. So if he does that, 20 million people who have insurance now will have to find something else. That includes people on Medicaid. He hasn't really put out a detailed 13 plan on what he would do to replace it. He's mentioned health savings 14 accounts, which is a way for people to save money, tax-free, to pay for health care costs.

Hillary Clinton - completely opposite. She wants to take what's there and build on Obamacare, make it more robust 15 and strong. She talks about increasing the subsidies. She talks about taking actions to rein 16 in costs. She's also proposing allowing people to buy into Medicare earlier than they can now. Now it's 65. They - she wants a lot of people starting at age 55 to do so. And she's also brought up what was very controversial - the public option, which is allowing the government to offer health care in places where there isn't a lot of competition.

SIEGEL: NPR's Alison Kodjak, thanks.