More than 1,300 people in Athens County are enrolled in Affordable Care Act plans, according to a cleveland.com report.
Of those 1,312 people, 522 are enrolled in plans that receive cost-sharing revenues and have paid $653,916 in payments toward those programs. Those plans could lose cost-sharing subsidies that President Donald Trump plans to eliminate.
Trump signed an executive order Thursday that would cut off subsidy payments to insurers selling Affordable Care Act, or "Obamacare," coverage, according to Politico. The subsidies are worth an estimated $7 billion this year help insurance companies reduce out-of-pocket costs for low and middle-income consumers.
In Ohio, these subsidies amounted to $100.5 million in Ohio last year, cleveland.com said. While premiums are expected to increase in the coming years due to the loss of those subsides, Ohio isn’t expected to see immediate changes.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich said the decision could lead to higher prices, making people unable to afford health insurance.
“This whole issue is about people,” Kasich said on Meet the Press on Sunday. “It is not about politics. It is not about numbers. It’s about people.”
About 2 percent of the population of Athens County is enrolled in Affordable Care Act plans, which is slightly higher than the state average for other counties at 1.91 percent. Additionally, the number of people who are enrolled in plans that receive cost-sharing revenues is 0.8 percent, which is about the same as the average for other counties.
