Says the brief, “Results from mid-2018 suggest that despite significant challenges, the individual market remains stable and insurers are generally profitable.” It adds that the individual market shows no signs of a “market collapse.”

While insurers did boost premiums for 2018, some by double digits, citing “uncertainty” surrounding the administration's past and future actions—such as canceling the cost reduction ratio payments to insurers—the brief pointed out that they may have gone too far, resulting in bigger profits. And sans Trump's policy changes, the brief says, “it is likely that insurers would generally have required only modest premium increases in 2018.”

In addition, there are signs that people who can no longer afford coverage due to the premium hikes are dropping out of the market, so that those who remain are both sicker and more expensive for insurers to cover. Says the report, “On average, the number of days individual market enrollees spent in a hospital in the first six months of 2018 was higher than in the previous three years, which could be a sign of a modestly worsening risk pool.”

Read more about the ACA market:

• ACA marketplace holding steady, despite turmoil
• DOJ: Blocking Obamacare now would cause chaos
• What can the ACA marketplace learn from Medicare Advantage?