MPH’s Graves: ACA marketplaces functioning in their role as public safety nets
The Trump administration released a report on Tuesday saying that 11.8 million Americans enrolled in health coverage for 2018 through the law’s insurance marketplaces, down just a tick from the 12.2 million sign-ups in 2017.
“At this point, the marketplaces are really functioning more broadly in their role as an extension of the public safety net than in their role as a competitive market,” John Graves, a health policy professor at Vanderbilt University, told me.
But for the 10 million or so people who do receive financial help, they seem to be here to stay — and they’re still coming in: 27 percent of this year’s Obamacare customers were new, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The law’s structure protects them from premium hikes and gives insurers a guaranteed customer base that encourages plans to stay in the market, even if the patients are older and sicker than they would like.