title: Are Marketplace Plans Affordable? Consumer Perspectives from the Commonwealth Fund Affordable Care Act Tracking Survey, March-May 2015.
abstract: Most employers who provide health insurance to employees subsidize their premiums and provide a comprehensive benefit package. Before the Affordable Care Act, people who lacked health insurance through a job and purchased it on their own paid the full cost of their plans, which often came with skimpy benefit packages and high deductibles. Findings from the Commonwealth Fund Affordable Care Act Tracking Survey, March--May 2015, indicate that the law's tax credits have made premium costs in health plans sold through the marketplaces roughly comparable to employer plans, at least for people with low and moderate incomes. At higher incomes, the phase-out of the subsidies means that adults in marketplace plans have higher premium costs than those in employer plans. Overall, larger shares of adults in marketplace plans reported deductibles of $1,000 or more, compared with those in employer plans, though these differences were narrower among low-and moderate-income adults.
authors.affiliation: The Commonwealth Fund. src@cmwf.org
authors.forename: Sara R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Collins
authors.forename: Munira
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gunja
authors.forename: Petra W
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Rasmussen
authors.forename: Michelle M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Doty
authors.forename: Sophie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Beutel
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003256:Community Participation; D005249:Fees and Charges; D006264:Health Benefit Plans, Employee / Q000191:economics*; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D062265:Health Insurance Exchanges / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D058991:Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; D014481:United States