CBO: Premiums will rise over 20% if the feds stop paying subsidies

The LA Times reports that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that.

“If the government stopped making the payments, insurers would respond by raising premiums by 20% to 25% over the next couple of years,” which would increase the federal deficit by about $20 billion per year over the next 10 years.

As we wrote in an earlier HCA post, these subsidies, known as “cost sharing reductions” or CSRs, are vital to California’s individual market, Covered California.  Around 680,000 Californians rely on CSRs to help pay co-pays and lower deductibles.

HCA