Thousands of Idahoans cancel health insurance plans on exchange ahead of subsidies ending

Idaho's health insurance exchange ended open enrollment Monday night, with thousands of Idahoans canceling plans ahead of the expiration of deep federal government subsidies.

Overall, enrollment in health insurance plans on Your Health Idaho rose by 3% this year compared to last year, with more than 120,000 Idahoans enrolled in plans on the state exchange. But the exchange also saw twice as many people — nearly 8,850 — disenroll in health insurance plans, 24% less new enrollments, and more people shifting to cheaper insurance plans, where health care costs are higher.

Your Health Idaho Executive Director Pat Kelly said affordability was a key concern for Idahoans.

"While we're certainly encouraged by the increase in enrollment, we're concerned about those that will find the plan they selected unaffordable and cancel coverage," he told the Idaho Capital Sun in an interview.

In the coming months, Kelly said he expects another 20,000 Idahoans will cancel coverage due to affordability concerns. It'll likely take until April for enrollment to settle, he said, as Idahoans get a better sense of how their insurance premiums fit in their budget, and as insurance companies can cancel coverage for nonpayment.

Enhanced premium tax credits that deeply subsidize health insurance premiums on Affordable Care Act exchanges are set to expire at the end of this year, unless Congress renews them. Congress appears on track to let the tax credits expire, as Republican leaders pursue legislation to address health care costs without extending the credits.

'Idaho is about to be ground-zero for a national health care affordability crisis,' Idaho Democrat says

Idaho's health insurance exchange, Your Health Idaho, is likely the first state-based exchange in the nation to end open enrollment this year.

"Idaho is about to be ground zero for a national health care affordability crisis — not because Idahoans did anything wrong, but because Republicans in Congress refuse to act," Ada County Democratic Party Chair Jared Deloof told reporters at a news conference near U.S. Sen. Jim Risch's office in downtown Boise.

In Idaho, the credits reduced premiums by an average of $407 each month, according to the nonpartisan health policy group KFF. About 87% of Idahoans who have insurance through the state exchange received the credits, according to a report by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Jenn Bazer, a single mom of two, said she earns $75,000 a year, and picks up work on the side, but doesn't get insurance through work.

So, she gets insurance on the exchange for her two kids, subsidized by the tax credits, Bazer said.

But when she got a raise at work recently — to help deal with the rising costs of her own private insurance plan — "there was just enough to kick my boys out of eligibility for the enhanced premium tax credit," she said.

"Even if they had been able to stay on, their premium was going to increase $200 a month starting January 1st. So that was unaffordable anyway," Bazer said.

Instead of extending tax credits, Idaho U.S. Sen. Crapo pursued another idea in Congress

Congress appears to be on track to let the enhanced premium tax credits expire at the end of this year.

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, said Tuesday he won't allow a floor vote this week on a bipartisan amendment supported by moderate Republicans that would extend the credits, States Newsroom reported.

The House is instead preparing to vote on a GOP health care bill that Republicans hope will curb rising costs.

In the Senate last week, a bill cosponsored by Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo to address rising health insurance costs didn't pass. Crapo's bill would provide funding through Health Savings Accounts for some Affordable Care Act marketplace enrollees, but it would not extend the enhanced tax credits.

Crapo and fellow Republican Risch also voted against a Democratic bill in the Senate that would've extended the credits for three years.

"If there is a crisis coming, it is entirely of the Democrats' making," Crapo said in a statement. "My colleagues on the other side of the aisle created the premium tax credits as part of the Obamacare system, because they did not trust their own policy to make health insurance affordable without shifting the burden of paying for it from enrollees to taxpayers."

Risch could not be reached for comment.