As Missouri health insurance shoppers log-in to the ObamaCare marketplace, they will notice they will have a lack of choices to choose from
November 1, 2016
Under ObamaCare, Health Care Options Dwindle As Costs Rise For Missourians
As Missouri health insurance shoppers log-in to the ObamaCare marketplace, they will notice they will have a lack of choices to choose from.
Days before ObamaCare’s fourth enrollment season opened to the public, The Associated Press released an analysis of the insurance options available to Missourians. The AP found that Missouri is “among eight states with only one participating insurer in most counties.”
In 2014, 98 percent of Missouri’s 115 counties had two participating insurers in the program, and this year that same percentage of counties had at least three insurers. But the analysis shows that next year, 84 percent of the counties will have just one insurer and 14 percent will have only two.
Not only do Missourian’s face fewer offerings on the exchange, they also face double-digit rise in health premiums. The AP’s analysis also showed that “premiums for a benchmark plan will rise at least 20 percent in 68 Missouri counties.”
Rather than providing a robust marketplace offering affordable health coverage, ObamaCare is having the opposite effect. Missourians face the grim prospect of purchasing unaffordable health coverage or choosing to forgo insurance and pay the IRS thousands of dollars in penalties for being uninsured.