Among those who currently buy their own health insurance, 48 percent would be eligible for tax credits to offset their premiums on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's individual insurance market, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation report.
That percentage doesn't include more than 1 million people currently purchasing individual insurance who will qualify for Medicaid in 2014. Under the PPACA, some states have chosen to expand their Medicaid programs to cover people with family incomes up to 138 percent of the poverty level. The report focuses on people who are currently buying their own coverage and will likely keep doing so in 2014 because they don't have employer coverage and don't qualify for Medicaid.
For the 48 percent who will qualify for tax credits, the average subsidy will be $5,548 per family, according to the report. The second-lowest-cost silver plan available through the 2014 exchanges will cost current individual insurance market buyers an average premium per family of $8,250, according to the report, which draws on Congressional Budget Office estimates. That means the average subsidy will cover about 67 percent of the average family plan premium.
Premium subsidies — distributed in the form of federal tax credits — will be available for people purchasing their own coverage through the new exchanges who have incomes from 100 percent to 400 percent of the poverty level, which amounts to $24,000 to $94,000 per year for a family of four in 2014, according to the report. The tax credit amount will hinge on a benchmark premium, the cost of the second-lowest-cost silver plan in an enrollee's area of residence.
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