The study used consumer spending data to analyze family budgets across income levels, and compared them to the costs of buying coverage through subsidized insurance exchanges. Researchers found that 90 percent of Americans living above the federal poverty level could afford to pay for premiums and out-of-pocket costs for insurance once they paid for child care, food, housing, taxes and transportation.
The reform law is “affordable for virtually everyone,” said Jonathan Gruber, professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and co-author of the report. “The only sort of black mark is that very sick, low-income people are not as protected as they should be.”
Read the Commonwealth Fund report on healthcare reform.
Related Articles on Insurance Premiums and Out-of-Pocket Costs:
Excess Costs of Medicare Advantage Plans Declining
Raising Medicare Age to 67 Would Increase Out-of-Pocket by $5.6B
Consumers Spent $363M on Uncovered Healthcare Costs in 2009
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