“JACKSON HOLE, Wyo.— Like millions of other Americans, Stacy Newton turns to Healthcare.gov to shop for health insurance for her family. The Affordable Care Act website, according to the government, is where consumers are supposed to find “a menu of health insurance plans,'” Peter Whoriskey writes for The Washington Post. “But for the Newtons and many others in the country, next year’s menu is severely limited: There is only one company offering A.C.A. plans here — and costs have risen steeply. To continue health coverage for themselves and their two teenage children, the Newtons would have to pay an annual premium of $43,000 — about a third of their gross income. It is the price of the cheapest plan available to the family from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Wyoming, the only A.C.A. insurer left in Teton County. This year, millions of American families that have relied on A.C.A., popularly known as Obamacare, are being squeezed on multiple sides: Premiums are rising, the covid-era subsidies that helped pay for those policies are shrinking, and there are fewer choices with insurers pulling out of some markets. The squeeze here is a symptom of broader trouble in American health care. In western Wyoming and other regions, the expected rollback of enhanced subsidies has destabilized the economics of Obamacare, pushing some insurers to retreat from the government-supported market because it won’t be profitable.” Peter Whoriskey, “A middle-class family’s only option: A $43,000 health insurance premium,” The Washington Post.
