Cohen: Affordable Care Act Saving Tennesseans Almost 70% on Health Insurance Premiums

[WASHINGTON, DC] – President Obama’s Affordable Care Act is working and achieving its goal of lowering consumer costs for high-quality health insurance coverage, Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) announced today as he highlighted a new report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that found Tennesseans saved an average of 69% on plans with tax credits selected through the HealthCare.gov marketplace. With the tax credits available through the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance marketplace, the average Tennessean’s monthly premium dropped almost 70% from $281/month to just $86/month.

“Today’s report makes it clear the President’s landmark health care reform law is achieving its goal of making high-quality, affordable health coverage a right, not just a privilege,” said Congressman Cohen. “With Tennesseans saving nearly 70% through tax credits on their health insurance coverage, there can be no question that the Affordable Care Act is working.”

“But while the law is working and Memphians are seeing many of the law’s benefits, thousands of Tennesseans are without coverage because of Govornor Haslam’s refusal to expand our state’s Medicaid program, TennCare,” continued the Congressman. “It is time for Republican leaders to put the political brinksmanship behind them and stop blocking the law’s benefits and end their attempts to take the law’s protections away from the American people.”

Today’s HHS report also found that nearly 80% of Tennesseans selected plans with tax credits and those who selected silver plans, the most popular plan type, paid just $78 per month for their insurance. Of the Tennesseans who selected insurance plans with tax credits, 42% paid just $50/month or less. This report demonstrates that the new tax credits are working as intended to make premiums affordable, and the Marketplace is bringing much-needed competition to the insurance market.

“What we’re finding is that the Marketplace is working for Tennesseans. Consumers have more choices, and they’re paying less for their premiums,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell. “When there is choice and competition, everybody benefits.”

President Obama’s landmark Affordable Care Act includes a number of other provisions to keep premiums affordable. Thanks to the law, health insurance companies must now spend at least 80 cents of each premium dollar on health care and improvements to care, or they must provide consumers with a refund. In 2012, 131,826 Tennesseans received $5,618,993 in refunds – with the average Tennesseans receiving a refund of roughly $69 per family.

The law’s rate review grant program has already provided $4,979,002 to the State of Tennessee to enhance its rate review program. Since the passage of the law, the proportion of insurance company requests for double-digit rate increases was cut by more than half nationwide. Because of this reduction, consumers across the country saved nearly $1.2 billion on their premiums in 2012 when compared to the amount originally requested by insurers.