Premiums May Rise in 2019 Even With Obamacare Subsidies Restored

Health insurance premiums may still rise in 2019 even if Congress funds the cost-sharing subsidies for low-income Obamacare enrollees as envisioned, health-care policy analysts say.

Federal funding of the subsidies that health insurers are required to provide to Affordable Care Act enrollees with incomes between 100 percent and 250 percent of the poverty level “will help for the nonsubsidized premiums,” Deep Banerjee, director of health insurance ratings for S&P Global Ratings, told Bloomberg Law Dec. 19. Still, individual market premiums are expected to rise in 2019 if the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (H.R. 1) is enacted because the bill ...