In the most recent report by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) the average monthly premium for the Obamacare’s second to the lowest cost plan, also called the silver plan or the bench mark plan, is up by 37% from the year 2017. From the years 2016 to 2017 the premium for the plan has increased a total of 24%.
As per the report, in year 2014, the Obamacare was first implemented the premium of the benchmark plan equaled to $218 for a 27 year old. In 2018 the same premium is predicted to grow to almost double, $411.
The premiums are also increasing by a 17% for the Obamacare’s lowest cost plans. The report also found that fewer and fewer enrollees would have the access to a plan that would cost less than $200 a month.
“The%age of current enrollees with access to a plan for $200 or less decreased from 16% for plan year 2017 to 6% to plan year 2018,” the report stated. “If enrollees were to stay within their current metal level, only 2% will have access to coverage with premiums of $200 or less for plan year 2018.”
The taxpayers are also expected to see further higher costs as premium subsidies have grown along with premium increases as well. In plan year for 2014 when Obamacare coverage had begun, the average advance premium tax credit totaled a sum of $259. This year, that tax credit took up and rose to $382, and it is projected to grow further by a 45% to $555 in the 2018 plan year.
While the enrollees and the taxpayers are seeing the higher costs, health insurer participation and plan choices are also on a constant decline. The report found that there will only be 132 health insurers participating next year, which is a massive decline of 21% from the 167 insurers participating in 2017.
The eight states—Alaska, Delaware, Iowa, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Wyoming—are the only ones that will have one health insurer participating in the entire state. In 2016, only 2% of the Obamacare enrollees had one choice on the exchange. Next year, that number is expected to increase to a huge 29%.
“This data demonstrates just how rapidly Obamacare’s exchanges are deteriorating with skyrocketing premiums year after year, more than half of Americans with no more than two insurers to choose from, and the taxpayer burden exploding,” said Caitlin Oakley, the press secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
“There is an urgent and serious need to repeal this failed law and replace it with patient-centered solutions,” she further said.