‘People are choosing between health insurance and rent’: 66,000 WA residents dropped ACA coverage as premiums surged

A new state report showed 66,000 people in Washington dropped their Affordable Care Act (ACA) plans during or shortly after open enrollment this year. Roughly 14% of people on the state exchange dropped coverage last year; this year, that figure is nearly 25%.

KIRO hosts Gee Scott and Ursula Reutin discussed the findings on “The Gee and Ursula Show,” pointing to the end of enhanced federal subsidies as the main driver behind rising premiums.

“The biggest reason is pretty simple: The federal government stopped giving the extra help that had been lowering people’s monthly insurance bills,” Ursula said. “We had people text in and say it went up by several hundred dollars, or it doubled, or even tripled.”

The report found 42% of those who dropped coverage are lower-income Washingtonians, most under 34, with Black and Hispanic residents dropping coverage at especially high rates.

“The state is warning that with more federal changes coming, as many as half of the people currently buying coverage through the state health exchange could eventually lose access to affordable insurance,” Ursula said.

Gee connects the coverage drop to homelessness and substance abuse

Gee said the findings tie into broader questions about why the state continues to struggle with homelessness and substance abuse.

“You have a lot of people out here that are choosing between health insurance and rent,” Gee said. “When you start making these types of choices, you potentially lose health insurance; now you have a greater risk of getting sick. These are people that are working, by the way. This isn’t people that are just sitting there not working.”

Gee remains curious whether advocates opposed to a proposed millionaires tax would put similar energy into helping residents facing this kind of financial choice.

“There’s a group here in the Washington area that are fighting so hard for the prevention of the millionaires tax,” Gee said. “I just am curious if the same folks that are fighting to prevent the millionaires tax will do a lot to help those that are fighting poverty.”

Ursula says delayed care leads to costlier emergencies

Ursula shared an account from someone she knows who has been delaying medical appointments due to cost, including a single visit that resulted in a $6,000 out-of-pocket bill.

“People are not going to stop getting sick. They’re still going to get sick, but what it’s going to take now is for them to only get in when it’s now an emergency,” Ursula said. “That’s not just costing them so much more, and now you’ve got an emergency, but it costs all of us more.”

According to Gee, the current system is built around reacting to crises rather than preventing them.

“We have a system that waits for people to get into the crisis, and it costs them more, it costs the taxpayers more,” Gee said. “If you’ve got to pay anyway, is it better to pay during crisis or better to pay in prevention?”

Ursula invited listeners who have gone without insurance due to cost to call in and share their experience, offering to keep callers anonymous unless they chose otherwise, as Gee shared that he’s seen people cut other forms of insurance, including auto coverage, to offset rising health premiums.

“When it gets really bad, people say, ‘OK, I’m going to let go of the car insurance,'” Gee said. “So they start getting rid of these insurances because premiums are starting to increase.”

“It’s OK until you have an emergency,” Ursula added.

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to Gee and Ursula on “The Gee and Ursula Show” weekday mornings from 9 am to 12 pm on KIRO Newsradio.