Health care reform subsidy sizes vary from state to state

U.S. Health Care Reform Update

Depending on where people live, they may be receiving greater assistance for purchasing health insurance.

U.S. Health Care Reform UpdateAmong the main elements of the health care reform is the subsidizing of the purchase of private insurance coverage for many Americans, in order to help to make sure that the coverage remains affordable for these individuals and families.

However, all subsidies are not created equal, and people in some states are receiving more of them than others.

Approximately 85 percent of the people who used the health care reform exchange websites in order to enroll in and purchase their insurance plans, received financial assistance from the government in order to help to place the cost of their premiums within their realm of affordability. This, according to the information that the Obama administration has released on the progress of the Affordable Care Act. Those same figures also indicated that the percentage of the residents receiving assistance in the form of subsidies is not at all standard throughout each of the states. This may have to do with the way that the law, itself, has been structured.

The proportion of the populations of the states receiving the health care reform subsidies varies.

For instance, in Mississippi, 94 percent of the people who enrolled in health insurance plans through the exchange website applied for and received these subsidies. Other states in which more than 90 percent of the enrollees received subsidies were Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Maine, North Carolina, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

However, those who enrolled in their insurance policies in Washington D.C. received subsidies only 16 percent of the time. Hawaii’s figure was just over twice that size, at 38 percent, which was still well below many of the other states. In Colorado and Vermont, approximately 60 percent of the people who enrolled were eligible for the financial assistance from the government. Kentucky, New York, and Washington’s figure was at about 75 percent.

The reason is that the eligibility for the subsidies through the health care reform are linked to two primary factors – local insurance prices and household income – and those issues vary greatly from one state to the next.

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