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The Health 202: Who's getting extra Obamacare subsidies? Trump's own voters
Source: Washington Post, by Paige Winfield Cunningham
This map shows where Obamacare enrollees are getting extra subsidies for copays and deductibles, based on 2016 data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Yellow represents states with the fewest recipients of the extra subsidies while dark red represents states with the most recipients. About 58 percent of all marketplace customers in the U.S. are getting these cost-sharing reductions, available to those earning between 100 percent and 250 percent of the federal poverty level.
Even with federal subsidies, health insurance can still be impossibly expensive for low-income people if they actually want to visit the doctor. That’s why the Affordable Care Act requires insurers to discount extra, out-of-pocket expenses like copays and deductibles for people who earn less than $29,700 annually (the bar is $60,750 for a family of four).
And that prompts a big question the Trump administration must decide soon: Whether it will reimburse insurers for offering those discounts, or whether insurers will just have to shoulder the losses. Congress has refused to fund the subsidies — memorably called “cost-sharing reductions,”or CSR’s — so now their fate is up to Trump and his Cabinet.
It was difficult to ascertain what Trump will do from an interview with The Economist last week where he seemed to indicate he could halt the payments "anytime I want" but didn't clarify whether he actually would. "I'd have to decide what I want to do because I want people to have health care," Trump said.
Who hurts if Trump withholds the payments? Many of his own voters. The highest concentrations of Americans with CSR’s live in states that voted for Trump (see the map above). Out of the 15 states with the highest share of qualifying consumers, only three went for Trump's opponent, Hillary Clinton. More than 70 percent of people who bought Obamacare marketplace plans get the extra subsidies in Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and South Carolina -- all states Trump won in November..
And that prompts a big question the Trump administration must decide soon: Whether it will reimburse insurers for offering those discounts, or whether insurers will just have to shoulder the losses. Congress has refused to fund the subsidies — memorably called “cost-sharing reductions,”or CSR’s — so now their fate is up to Trump and his Cabinet.
It was difficult to ascertain what Trump will do from an interview with The Economist last week where he seemed to indicate he could halt the payments "anytime I want" but didn't clarify whether he actually would. "I'd have to decide what I want to do because I want people to have health care," Trump said.
Who hurts if Trump withholds the payments? Many of his own voters. The highest concentrations of Americans with CSR’s live in states that voted for Trump (see the map above). Out of the 15 states with the highest share of qualifying consumers, only three went for Trump's opponent, Hillary Clinton. More than 70 percent of people who bought Obamacare marketplace plans get the extra subsidies in Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and South Carolina -- all states Trump won in November..
Much more at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/the-health-202/2017/05/15/the-health-202-who-s-getting-extra-obamacare-subsidies-trump-s-own-voters/5914a09be9b69b209cf2b812/?utm_term=.0fa298901933