{"id":1523,"date":"2013-10-10T08:35:12","date_gmt":"2013-10-10T12:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chirblog.org\/?p=1523"},"modified":"2013-10-10T08:38:01","modified_gmt":"2013-10-10T12:38:01","slug":"dont-be-fooled-aca-coverage-a-better-deal-for-just-about-everyone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chirblog.org\/dont-be-fooled-aca-coverage-a-better-deal-for-just-about-everyone\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Be Fooled \u2013 ACA Coverage is a Better Deal for Just About Everyone"},"content":{"rendered":"

First, Affordable Care Act (ACA) opponents charged that premiums for the new marketplace health plans would be too high<\/a>, and consumers would face \u201crate shock.\u201d But then states and federally facilitated marketplaces (FFMs) started to publish premium rates and they were actually lower than projected<\/a>. So \u00a0critics pivoted to a new argument, conceding that marketplace coverage might, indeed come with low premiums, but the trade-off would be high deductibles<\/a>, high cost-sharing, and narrow networks.<\/p>\n

Such claims neglect to mention that marketplace plans are actually a much better deal for most consumers, compared to what has, up to now, been available. Pre-ACA, consumers faced a \u201cwild west\u201d when buying health insurance, and many were shut out entirely because of high costs or pre-existing conditions. And for those that could buy coverage, it was often like swiss cheese<\/a> \u2013 full of holes. What good is insurance that you can\u2019t rely on when you get sick or injured?<\/p>\n

As CHIR faculty documented in a recent report, Real Stories, Real Reforms<\/a>, the insurance coverage that has been available to individuals buying it on their own falls far short of the typical employer-based plan. They have not only faced higher premiums than those with employer-offered coverage, but also much higher deductibles<\/a> and other forms of cost-sharing, such as co-payments<\/a> and coinsurance<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A Commonwealth Fund<\/a> survey<\/a> published in 2009 found that 60 percent of people with health problems reported it \u201cvery difficult\u201d or \u201cimpossible\u201d to find a plan with coverage they needed, compared to about one-third of respondents without a health problem. And in fact, over half of individual market plans sold today don\u2019t meet the minimum coverage standards in the ACA. Before the ACA\u2019s reforms went into effect, coverage on the individual market was inadequate for many reasons, including:<\/p>\n