The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to make a decision on the King v. Burwell case this year, which could potentially result in the inability of federally run exchanges to provide subsidies that help people purchase insurance coverage.
Wisconsin would be among five states to be impacted the most significantly, according to HealthPocket Inc., a technology company based in Sunnyvale, Calif., that compares and ranks health insurance plans. The four other states that would be the most negatively affected if the insurance subsidies are lost are Alaska, Wyoming, Delaware and South Carolina.
According to HealthPocket, subsidies on Healthcare.gov reduce premiums by 76 percent on average and are available to 87 percent of recent enrollees. If the Supreme Court rules in favor of the plaintiffs, premium and out-of-pocket cost subsidies would be eliminated for approximately 5 million enrollees in the 37 states using the federal exchange as their Health Insurance Marketplace.
HealthPocket came to its conclusions by examining the premiums and deductibles of the bronze plans (the most popular Affordable Care Act insurance for the unsubsidized) in federal exchange states to determine which states had the largest insurance costs if subsidies were lost.
Wisconsin Hospital Association president and chief executive officer Eric Borgerding discussed King vs. Burwell and its potential ramifications in an article in the current issue of BizTimes Milwaukee.
