Facing higher premiums and the loss of federal subsidies, 374,000 people with health insurance from the state marketplace known as Covered California canceled their coverage in the first three months of the year, according to government statistics.<\/p>\n
The cancellations amount to 19% of those who had renewed their policies on the state marketplace during open enrollment, state officials said. Those cancellations are higher than in the past three years when they ranged from 13% to 15% of those who renewed.<\/p>\n
Jessica Altman, executive director of Covered California, attributed the jump in cancellations to the expiration of enhanced federal subsidies<\/a> that caused the cost of a plan to leap for most middle-class Californians.<\/p>\n \u201cWe expect coverage losses to increase through the year,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Overall, Covered California had 1.8 million enrollees in February, down from 1.94 million the year before \u2014 a decline of 7%.<\/p>\n Altman said monthly enrollment numbers are delayed because consumers have a three-month grace period to resume their premium payments before the insurance carriers end their coverage for nonpayment.<\/p>\n This year, many middle-class Californians who depend on the state-run insurance marketplace created under the Affordable Care Act faced annual costs that were hundreds of dollars <\/a>higher than last year because of the end of enhanced federal subsidies that began during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n In 2021, Congress voted to temporarily boost the amount of subsidies Americans could receive for an ACA plan.<\/p>\n The law also expanded the program to families who had more money. Before that 2021 vote, only Americans with incomes below 400% of the federal poverty level \u2014 currently $62,600 a year for a single person or $128,600 for a family of four \u2014 were eligible for ACA subsidies. The 2021 vote eliminated the income cap and limited the cost of premiums for those higher-earning families to no more than 8.5% of their income.<\/p>\n On top of the loss of the enhanced federal subsidies, the average premium charged by insurers this year for a Covered California plan rose by more than 10% because of fast-rising medical costs.<\/p>\n