"You're 60 years old and married, with a household income of $82,000 per year, a little higher than the state median. You have health insurance coverage through Wyoming's marketplace, which is powered by the Affordable Care Act, or "Obamacare." Right now, you're probably paying about $48 per month in premiums, which are the fees you owe insurers to simply be on their plans."
"In the West, more than 4 million people are enrolled in marketplace plans supported by the Affordable Care Act. Depending on their age and location, many of them could soon be facing sticker shock. Rural areas, where fewer people get insurance through employers and health care costs tend to be higher, could be particularly hard hit."
"Katherine Hempstead, a senior policy adviser at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said that made an especially big difference in states with high health care costs - like Wyoming and Alaska, which have the second- and fourth-highest average health care premiums in the country. "The enhanced premium tax credits made an enormous difference in affordability for a lot of people there," Hempstead said. "Especially people that were over 400% of the poverty level who didn't get any tax credit""
A 60-year-old married Wyoming resident with an $82,000 household income currently pays about $48 per month for a marketplace health plan, but premiums could jump to roughly $300 per month in 2026, an increase over 500%. More than 4 million people in the West enroll in ACA marketplace plans, and rural areas may be particularly exposed to large premium increases due to higher health costs and lower employer coverage. The American Rescue Plan Act's 2021 enhanced premium tax credits sharply lowered consumer costs, capping premiums at 8.5% of income and reducing payments to $0 for the lowest-income enrollees. States with high premiums, like Wyoming and Alaska, benefited most.
Read at High Country News
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