THE INFLATION REDUCTION ACT AND HEALTH INSURANCE - PART I
After months of haggling, The Inflation Reduction Act became law Tuesday. Click HERE for a one page (!) summary.
If you do not get your health insurance through an Employer Sponsored Group Plan, chances are you only pay a fraction of the premium for your Marketplace individual coverage.
Who pays the rest?
Obamacare premium tax credits - enhanced by The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) - that’s who!
Set to expire 12/31/’22, The IRA extended those enhanced tax credits three years.
That means premium increases for individual coverage could be minimal again this year.
Consider however
a broader implication
.
For decades we’ve heard that ‘skyrocketing’ health
insurance premiums are ‘unsustainable.’
Smaller (for now, anyway) employers are discovering how to flat-line benefits costs using defined contributions to Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Accounts (ICHRAs), from which employees buy their own insurance.
Some predict the IRA tax subsidy extension makes it more likely national carriers (with their PPO Networks) will return to the Marketplace; i.e., a ‘booster shot’ for ICHRAs. That could explain the ubiquitous radio ads, if you’re listening.
CFO’s are all ears!
P.S. While potentially signaling a shift in how we buy health insurance, is this really a government “takeover?”
