healthinsurance.org: Inflation Reduction Act helps ensure affordable health coverage

Minneapolis, MN, Aug. 16, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Healthinsurance.org released this statement today after President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) into law. The IRA extends the American Rescue Plan’s health insurance subsidy enhancements through 2025, preventing them from expiring at the end of this year.

“Today’s action is great news for the 13 million Americans who receive premium subsidies for marketplace health insurance,” said Louise Norris, health policy analyst for healthinsurance.org. “At a time when many other goods and services are also getting more expensive, extending the subsidy enhancements will help ensure lower premiums for these consumers – not only for 2023 ACA coverage, but also in 2024 and 2025 as well.”

Most people do not pay full price for marketplace coverage. In 2022, about 89% of marketplace enrollees receive premium subsidies. HHS estimated that 3 million people could have lost their coverage altogether – while 10 million would have seen their subsidies decline or disappear – had the ARP subsidies not been extended under the Inflation Reduction Act.

“Without the Inflation Reduction Act, coverage would have become much less affordable for many consumers in 2023,” Norris said. “Open enrollment for 2023 health coverage will start on Nov. 1. With this new law, most marketplace enrollees should expect to see the same general level of affordability for 2023 that they had in 2022. But it will still be important to actively compare the available plans during open enrollment, as we’ll still see the normal annual fluctuations in available plans, subsidy amounts, and after-subsidy premiums.”

Healthinsurance.org provides free, online resources for consumers, including information about individual health insurance, major medical insurance and affordable medical insurance.