ARPA’s enhanced premium subsidies provide particularly large benefits to residents of rural areas

ARPA’s enhanced premium subsidies provide particularly large benefits to residents of rural areas

Collection:
Health Policy and Services Research
Author(s):
Holahan, John, author
Wengle, Erik, author
O'Brien, Claire, (Of Urban Institute), author
Contributor(s):
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, issuing body.
Urban Institute, issuing body.
Publication:
Washington, DC : Urban Institute, May 2022
Language(s):
English
Format:
Text
Subject(s):
Financing, Government -- economics
Health Equity -- economics
Health Expenditures -- statistics & numerical data
Health Policy
Insurance, Health -- statistics & numerical data
Rural Health -- economics
Social Mobility
United States
Genre(s):
Technical Report
Abstract:
The American Rescue Plan Act(ARPA) significantly expanded the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) advanced premium tax credits, or premium subsidies. The ACA provides two forms of financial assistance to Marketplace nongroup insurance enrollees: capping household premium contributions as a percentage of income (with more generous assistance for those with lower incomes) and lowering out-of-pocket costs such as deductibles, copayments, coinsurance, and out-of-pocket maximums in the form of cost sharing reductions. Because of the structure of premium assistance, people living in areas of the country with the highest premiums see the greatest benefit from ARPA subsidies—and residents of rural areas are more likely to see higher insurance premiums. As shown in table 1, ARPA premium subsidies provide greater assistance at every income level than the original ACA subsidies. Additionally, the premium subsidies extend assistance to people earning above 400 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL) with a cap that limits any qualifying individual’s premium contributions to 8.5 percent of their income, while the original ACA subsidies were not available to people with incomes above 400 percent of FPL.
Copyright:
Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY-NC-DC license. (More information)
Extent:
1 online resource (1 PDF file (10 pages))
Illustrations:
Illustrations
NLM Unique ID:
9918486683006676 (See catalog record)
Permanent Link:
http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918486683006676