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4 Steps That Could Cut Health Insurance Premiums And Boost Enrollment
Congress and the Trump administration could boost insurance coverage by a couple of million people and lower premiums by taking a few actions to stabilize the Affordable Care Act insurance markets, according to a new analysis by the consulting firm Oliver Wyman.
The paper, which lays out a simple blueprint for making insurance more affordable for more people while working within the current health law's structure, comes just days before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee begins hearings on ways to stabilize markets in the short term.
"Together, these approaches could increase enrollment by roughly two million individuals, reduce average premiums by more than 20 percent and be roughly revenue neutral," the analysis by Kurt Giesa and Peter Kaczmarek says.
The analysis concludes that under current law, about 17 million people will buy insurance in the individual market next year, many of them outside the ACA marketplaces. If the four actions outlined in the paper are implemented, about 19 million people would buy individual insurance, the study finds.
At the same time, the average monthly premium would fall from $486 to $384.
Some of the actions, including extending the Affordable Care Act's cost-sharing subsidies, are already on the table for next month's committee hearings.
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