PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — With open enrollment for health insurance set to begin on Nov. 1, premiums in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware are going up again.
Increases vary by insurer, but individuals who buy health insurance on their own through Pennie, Get Covered NJ, or the federal marketplace will see increases averaging 16%.
Dr. Mark Pauly, professor emeritus at Penn’s Wharton School of Business, said accelerating health care costs are largely being driven by expensive new prescription drugs, such as the popular GLP-1s and genetic treatments for diseases thought to be incurable.
“To some extent the reason for rising health care costs is good news, there’s more that can be done to improve your health,” he said, “but the bad news is, it comes with a price tag.”
Pauly noted the costs are passed on to an entire insurance pool, even to those not taking the drugs. But he also cited a public policy aspect — the loss of federal subsidies for marketplace plans and impending changes to Medicaid that will leave more people uninsured.
“With the expiration of COVID-era enhancements to subsidies, those subsidies have gone away so premiums have to go up,” he said.
“The cost of uncompensated care is spread out over all the paying customers and that includes people who buy insurance on the Obamacare exchanges.”
Pauly warned not to let insurance lapse, recommending even cheaper plans with higher deductibles over going without insurance. “If you can’t afford health insurance,” he said, “you can even less afford to be uninsured and faced with one of these big bills.”
