‘Real sticker shock’: Many patients could face higher health premiums next year

You could end up paying thousands more for health insurance soon, Action 9 attorney Jason Stoogenke said.

We’re talking about people with Affordable Care Act plans and more specifically, those who rely on healthcare tax credits.

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Those credits mean lower healthcare premiums each month, but those credits are set to expire the end of this year.

A group called Keep Americans Covered has been very vocal trying to keep these credits.

It’s a coalition with members mostly from the health care industry, including Blue Cross Blue Shield.

“Nineteen or 20 million people across the country are going to see their premiums spike. They’re going to have a real sticker shock,” said Blue Cross Blue Shield Association’s David Merritt.

Keep Americans Covered says this is what will happen starting in January:

Average premiums will go up 93%.

Five million Americans will lose coverage, including one in four patients with chronic conditions.

People in rural areas would be hit extra hard.

The coalition broke down the numbers. Here’s what they say for some of the communities in the Charlotte area (the number of patients impacted in each U.S. Congressional district based on last year’s data):

N.C. District 12, which covers a chunk of Mecklenburg County: 88,000 patients.
N.C. District 8, which is part of Cabarrus County and Union County: 70,000 people.
N.C. District 14, which is Gastonia County and part of Lake Norman: 86,000 patients.
S.C. District 5, which covers Lancaster County and York County: 71,000 people.

In dollars and cents, the group says, a family of four earning $64,000 would pay $2,571 more next year and a 60-year-old couple earning around $82,000 would pay anywhere from $15,914 to $18,707 more.

“There are, you know, blue-collar, working-class folks all across the country. Red states, blue states, everywhere in between who depend on this healthcare tax credit,” Merritt said.

The coalition is urging Congress to extend the tax credit beyond this year.

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