Saturday, August 5, 2017

The individual insurance market has shrunk by 13% in one year, led by those unsubsidized

From the story here:

As of March 2017, the individual insurance market totaled 17.6 [million-doh!] people. That is down from 20.2 million one year prior. This is a decrease of 2.6 million people, a 13 percent drop in the size of the overall individual-health-insurance market. 12.2 million bought their health insurance on the state- and federally run Obamacare exchanges [vs. 12.7 million the previous year]. 5.4 million people bought their insurance off of the Obamacare exchanges [vs. 7.5 million the previous year]. ... In other words, enrollment is steady among those who receive subsidies but declining dramatically among those who do not. ... In fact, in 2015, 7.5 million people paid the fine, while 6.5 million paid the fine in 2016, according to the IRS. ... After four years of attempts by the Obama administration, no more than 40 percent of those eligible for subsidies availed themselves of the program.