posted by
Institute Staff
Why We ♥ The ACA: Reason #4
March 17, 2017
Reason #4: Subsidies for Low & Moderate Income Individuals and Families:
The new administration’s proposed bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) would eliminate cost-sharing subsidies which reduce what low-income individual plan customers pay out of pocket for health services. An estimated 2.7 million individuals will lose insurance in New York State. The Institute will continue to provide care to individuals without health insurance on a sliding-fee scale, but our reimbursements for the services we provide will drop and, at the same time, our patients will no longer have access to other health services.
Colleen Palmer, an Insurance Enrollment Coordinator at our Kingston Family Health Center, explained, “It’s important that low and moderate income families — who may have never had insurance — are now able to afford insurance with these subsidies. With the subsidies, the cost is offset, so people are not paying full price on premiums. They are able to access preventative services like cancer screenings and annual visits. These critical services are at no cost to them and they could help us [health professionals] identify chronic illnesses or early detections for cancer.”
She continued, “Overall, a benefit of these subsidies is reducing out of pocket costs for the patient. Not paying full price premiums is huge.”
Check our blog each week through March for more reasons why We ❤ the ACA.
