The cost of health care is likely to increase next year for people who get their health insurance through the marketplace created by Obamacare.
During the pandemic, Congress approved the plan that helped many people afford health insurance – enhanced tax credits that were later extended by the Inflation Reduction Act. Now, those enhanced tax credits are set to expire at the end of this calendar year, which means premiums could go up about 20%.
"Unfortunately, that protection against the rising costs of health care and insurance generally is going away at the end of this year," says Deepak Madala at the Virginia Poverty Law Center. "And so, a lot of people will be seeing – even if they receive some of those financial subsidies – increases in the cost of that insurance, unfortunately, starting January 1st."
Freddy Mejia at the Commonwealth Institute says these changes are likely to mean that younger and healthier people will go without insurance.
"Which leaves a sicker, older population that health insurance companies are going to have to cover, which unfortunately raises premiums," Mejia says. "So, it’s a bit of a circle, so that is something that Congress could avoid if they make a late move to extend these enhanced premium tax credits."
Members of Congress could take action to extend the enhanced premium tax credits, although they did not do that in the tax and spending plan that was recently signed by the president.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
