Click to access Healthcare-Consumerism_Rising-Costs_LEK-Executive-Insights_1806.pdf
In the first of our multipart Executive Insights series on consumerism in healthcare, L.E.K. Consulting examines why a more engaged consumer — despite the increasing optimism — will not be nearly enough to bend the healthcare cost curve or even stop the rising rates substantially.
People who warn that President Obama’s health-care law is in dire straits often point to rising health insurance premiums as proof. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has called premium increases on Affordable Care Act exchanges “astronomically high.” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) says premiums have “skyrocketed.”
But are these growing premiums actually high?
A new analysis from the Urban Institute found that the average unsubsidized premiums in the Affordable Care Act exchanges, commonly known as Obamacare, are actually 10 percent lowerthan the full premiums in the average employer plan nationally in 2016.
Nationally, the average employer-sponsored premium was $516 a month, while the unsubsidized marketplace premium was $464. To make an apples-to-apples comparison, the researchers adjusted marketplace premiums to account for the age of enrollees and the different value of the health coverage provided by the marketplace plans.
The exchanges offer health coverage to people who aren’t insured through their jobs, with subsidies based on income. About 11 million people are insured through the marketplaces, compared with about 155 million Americans who receive insurance coverage through employer-provided plans.
Recent news of large insurance carriers pulling out of some states’ marketplaces and hiking premiums in others has raised concerns that offering health insurance through exchanges isn’t sustainable and the health care offered isn’t affordable.
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality recently released data from its Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, a large-scale study of families, individuals, providers and employers in the U.S. concerning the cost and use of healthcare and health insurance.
Here are the 10 states with the costliest employer-sponsored health insurance in 2015, listed with the average single premium per enrolled employee at private-sector organizations:
HENRY KOTULA 