More middle-class Californians cancel health coverage after losing federal aid
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Facing higher premiums and the loss of federal subsidies, 374,000 people with health insurance from the state marketplace known as Covered California canceled their coverage in the first three months of the year, according to government statistics.The cancellations amount to 19% of those who had renewed their policies on the state marketplace during open enrollment, state officials said.Those cancellations are higher than in the past three years when they ranged from 13% to 15% of those who renewed.Jessica Altman, executive director of Covered California, attributed the jump in cancellations to the expiration of enhanced federal subsidies that caused the cost of a plan to leap for most middle-class Californians.“We expect coverage losses to increase through the year,” she said.Overall, Covered California had 1.8 million enrollees in February, down from 1.94 million the year before — a decline of 7%.Altman said monthly enrollment numbers are delayed because consumers have a three-month grace period to resume their premium payments before the insurance carriers end their coverage for nonpayment.
Business Tens of thousands of middle-class Californians now face higher health insurance premiums after Congress let enhanced federal subsidies expire Dec.31.This year, many middle-class Californians who depend on the state-run insurance marketplace created under the Affordable Care Act faced annual costs that were hundreds of dollars higher than last year because of the end of enhanced federal subsidies that began during the COVID-19 pandemic.In 2021, Congress voted to temporarily boost the amount of subsidies Americans could receive for an ACA plan.The law also expanded the program to families who had more money.
Before that 2021 vote, only Americans with incomes below 400% of the federal poverty level — currently $62,600 a year for a single person or $128,600 for a family of fou...