To the Rhino report now, nearly 2,000,000 Californians could be priced out of their health insurance when the Federal American Rescue Plan expires at the end of the year. Low income households could see their premiums double ABC 10s Morgan. Reiner covers all things politics and Morgan. Is anyone safe from these increases Krista put it quite frankly, no, not at the American rescue plan. Expires, not only would premiums increase for everyone under Covered California, but middle. Income households would no longer even qualify for financial help.
1.8 million people in California have health insurance through Covered California. The federal response to the pandemic people were able to get coverage at much lower prices than they had been before, really saving them money at a time. You know where we had a lot of uncertainty going on. Covered California predicts that 1,000,000 lower income households will see their premiums double if the American rescue plan expires, then people would fall back to the original guidelines of the Affordable Care Act, which did provide valuable financial. Help to consumers, just not at the same level, but spokesperson James Clary says those previous guidelines did not allow middle class Californians to qualify for financial help. The American Rescue plan did so anyone above and beyond that would be in jeopardy of losing all of their financial help. People who don't pay anything could see their rates go up to $75 a month. Others will pay hundreds more each month as rates are on a sliding scale based on income. So what should people do? Just brace for the worst. Health Access California executive director, told me there's one saving grace. It's an election year and we think that it's actually possible, if not likely, that Congress does extend these subsidies.
It's in nobody's interest to have premium spikes be announced, and people start to get those notices in, you know, this fall of an election year. Now I did ask, right? If this is just putting off the inevitable. If Congress does extend it, won't we just revisit this again? He told me he's hopeful that Congress will pass a permanent funding plan. Chris. In the meantime, we know that everyone under Covered California will see those premiums increase if this happened.
But how many do we think we'll just drop their insurance altogether? Because costs are just too high, about 150,000. The middle class families would see their premiums go up by. Thousands of dollars. So for many that's just out of the question. And just as so many other things were going up, groceries gas just talk about bad timing. Of course we'll stay on top of that. Morgan, thanks for the update..
