Nearly 20 percent of residents who did not renew the health insurance plans they purchased through the state’s online marketplace cited cost as the reason for terminating their coverage, according to survey results published Wednesday.
Access Health CT, the online health insurance marketplace created under the Affordable Care Act, hired an outisde group to conduct a survey of enrollees last month.
The preliminary survey results released by the state do not include the overall percentage of enrollees who chose to terminate coverage. But the report does reveal that of the people dropping their plans, 19 percent of them are doing so because the plans were too expensive.
Under a provision of Affordable Care Act, people who do not have health insurance are required to pay a fine. The maximum penalty under the law is equal to the national average premium for a Bronze plan purchased through one of the exchanges.
In Connecticut and elsewhere, however, the less-expensive plans offered through the exchanges have high deductibles, which can make them more costly than the premiums would indicate – and could be leading some people to decide not to renew their plans.
Jim Wadleigh, the CEO of Access Health CT, said one of the goals of the Affordable Care Act is to use the marketplaces to provide “downward pressure on the cost of insurance.”
“As more carriers enter the market to compete for individual business through the exchange, the less expensive coverage will become, and that’s good for consumers,” Wadleigh said.
The full survey results will be released this fall. The survey also found that 50 percent of enrollees did not have health insurance prior to purchasing coverage through the state’s online marketplace.
Date: July 22, 2015