In a new report, Blue Cross Blue Shield affirms what many insurers have alleged since the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) was first implemented in 2014: PPACA enrollees are sicker and more expensive than others.
The reason? Part of the landmark health law requires insurers to offer coverage to those seeking policies regardless of preexisting conditions. Insurers are only allowed to vary the cost of the coverage based on age and tobacco use.
The report only focuses on those enrolled in BCBS plans, but that's a pretty good sample size, given the huge national reach of the association's network across the country.
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PPACA enrollees are more likely to suffer from diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, HIV/AIDS, and depression. In fact, HIV was three times as common among post-PPACA enrollees and hepatitis C was twice as common.
As a result, PPACA enrollees are nearly twice as likely to be admitted to the hospital as others.
Of course, getting sick people coverage is supposed to be the aim of any health care law. The Obama administration emphasized that in response to the report.
"It's no surprise that people who newly gained access to coverage under the Affordable Care Act needed health care," Ben Wakana, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, told the New York Times. "That's why they were locked out of coverage before."
The problem the report highlights, however, is that the requirement that everybody buy insurance, aimed at getting younger, healthier people to enroll in plans, is not offsetting the number of sick enrollees.
In an attempt to get more healthy people to sign up for coverage, the Obama administration has raised the fine for forgoing insurance. And in response to complaints from insurers that some are abusing the "special enrollment periods" to wait until they are sick to sign up for insurance, the administration has also reduced the number of exemptions of the open enrollment deadline that it will allow, and has promised to more vigorously vet those who claim exemptions.
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