Commentary: While reports over the past several days have warned of steep premium hikes, financial assistance will help tens of thousands of New Mexicans afford quality health insurance through the beWellnm, New Mexico’s health insurance marketplace. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a report this week showing that unsubsidized premiums would rise about 25% nationally. However, the report also showed that the vast majority of shoppers are receiving financial assistance and will likely see only modest increases and some will experience a decrease in costs. And as premiums rise, so do premium tax credits.
The vast majority of New Mexicans continue to get their coverage from their employers, Medicare, or Medicaid and will not be impacted by the increases. The numbers cited in recent news stories only apply to individuals who earn too much to qualify for assistance in the individual marketplace.
“While we are concerned about the overall trend of rising health costs, the Affordable Care Act was designed to keep premiums affordable for working individuals and families,” said Barbara Webber, Executive Director of Health Action New Mexico. “Unfortunately, recent headlines have suggested that the premium increases would be widespread when they will actually affect a small portion of New Mexicans. We want to see fixes to the health law to ensure that those people are also shielded from increases.”
“We received a number calls from consumers who were worried about premium increases. Headlines and sensationalized media coverage have created confusion for consumers,” said Colin Baillio, Director of Policy and Communications of Health Action New Mexico. “Yesterday, I talked to a consumer who was crying because she couldn’t afford a 25% premium increase. With financial assistance, her premium actually decreased by 1%. It’s very important that the media clearly report the role of tax credits for health coverage.”
About 70% of current enrollees will have access to a plan that costs less than $100 a month and the vast majority of those individuals and families will have access to more affordable plans than in 2016. In order to receive financial assistance, consumers should purchase coverage from healthcare.gov, which officially opens for business on November 1st, 2016. New Mexicans have until December 15th to sign up for coverage that starts on January 1st, 2017.
Because of the Affordable Care Act, New Mexico is now experiencing the lowest rate of uninsured residents in our state’s history, with just 10% remaining uninsured compared to approximate 23% uninsured rate in 2013. This is historic progress but our work is not finished. The next stage of health reform will be addressing the underlying cost of health care in the United States and will require lawmakers coming together to fix and build upon the law to ensure greater access to health care for all people.
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Health Action NM is a non-profit, statewide, consumer advocacy organization that works to ensure that all NM communities have access to quality, affordable, medical and dental care.