The individual health insurance market is an essential market for Americans who buy their own coverage and cannot get coverage through their jobs or public programs such as Medicare or Medicaid. There are almost 20 million Americans with individual market coverage, who deserve affordable, high quality health care.
For many well-documented reasons, the individual market continues to face stability challenges in its fifth year under the market reform rules of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). These challenges include high premiums and high premium increases, fewer plan choices for many consumers, lower-than-projected enrollment, and risk pool challenges in certain states and markets. Moreover, recent policy actions and other proposals may exacerbate current market instability and place greater upward pressure on premiums for 2019. Congress must act now to strengthen and stabilize this important market.