Less Than 50% Are Healthcare Cost Secure
A new West Health-Gallup Affordability Index survey classifies just 49% of American adults as “Cost Secure” down two percentage points from 2024 and down 12 percentage points from 2022. Forty-one percent of adults in 2025 are considered “Cost Insecure” and 10% of adults are considered “Cost Desperate.”
Affordability, and specifically healthcare affordability, is a top election-year issue.
#affordability #healthcare #coverage
Exchange Rates To Jump Again
Health insurance companies say premiums will spike again in 2027 after a huge surge in 2026. Rate filings are underway. Hikes discussed by plans generally are between 11 and 26%, with one request as high as 52%. Enhanced subsidies’ expiration saw enrollment decline and risk increase. Those trends are continuing along with utilization and cost hikes.
In other news, Elevance Health confirmed it will exit Ohio’s small group insurance market by year’s end.
Additional article: https://www.modernhealthcare.com/insurance/mh-elevance-health-ohio-small-group-aca/
(Articles may require a subscription.)
#healthcare #coverage #exchanges
https://www.modernhealthcare.com/insurance/mh-2027-aca-exchange-premium-rates-unitedhealthcare
Cassidy Wants Social Security Investment Fund
Freed from political constraints with his primary loss to a Trump-backed opponent, HELP Chair and Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-LA, is touting major Social Security reforms to stabilize the retirement fund, which is set to be unable to fund all benefits by Q4 2032. His reforms include $1.5 trillion for a separate investment fund, which he says would take care of up to 65% of the program’s unfunded liability over 70 years.
#socialsecurity #unfundedliability
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5936481-cassidy-social-security-plan
— Marc S. Ryan
