State officials say Ohio is in a better position than some other states to handle President Trump’s decision to end federal cost-sharing payments to insurance companies. In the short term, the move should not have a significant impact on Ohio residents.
The 230,000 Ohioans who purchase insurance on the Affordable Care Act exchange will see little change in their subsidy payments when the marketplace enrollment period opens next month, according to the Ohio Department of Insurance.
Spokesman Chris Brock says insurance companies were required last spring to prepare for the worst-case scenario in case the feds cut off the cost sharing payments.
“In Ohio, what we required the companies that wanted to sell on the exchange to do was to assume they would not receive these reimbursements and go ahead and plan for that so the rates and the premium information that was approved by the department this summer is not going to change for 2018,” he said.
Brock says these cost-sharing reduction payments being withheld are not the ones that lower the price of insurance premiums for some 80 percent of people who shop in the marketplace. These subsidies help keep down out-of-pocket costs for things like doctor visits and prescription co-pays.
The insurance companies in Ohio will continue to cover these costs but, under Trump's order, the federal government will not reimburse them.