We show that many households, in particular those with lower incomes or where someone lacks insurance, have low levels of resources that would make it difficult for them to meet health insurance cost sharing demands. We assume that households pay premiums out of current income, but that they may need to use savings or other assets if they become seriously ill in order to meet the deductible or the out-of-pocket limit under their health insurance policies. We use information from the 2013 Survey of Consumer Finances to look at how household resources match up against potential cost-sharing requirements. Others potentially face much higher out-of-pocket expenses. The ACA provides cost-sharing assistance to some, primarily to those with incomes below 200 percent of poverty purchasing through a state or the federal marketplace (see sidebar).
Many of the policies in the state and federal marketplaces have significant cost sharing, as do many policies provided to people at work. The issue for some families, however, is that the policies with affordable premiums may have cost sharing requirements that would be difficult for them to meet when they access services. The law requires most people to have health insurance, if they can afford to pay the premium, or to pay a penalty. The goal of the law was to cover more of the uninsured, many of whom have limited means. While concerns about cost sharing are not new, the recent coverage expansions under the ACA put a new focus on what it means for coverage to be affordable. Many current policies expose individual enrollees to thousands of dollars in cost sharing expenses and family expenses can easily top ten thousand dollars when someone becomes seriously ill. For families with limited resources, however, high cost sharing can be a potential barrier to care and may lead these families to significant financial difficulties. Plans with higher deductibles and other point of service costs provide health plan enrollees with incentives to make more cost conscious health care choices. Higher cost sharing in private insurance has been credited with helping to slow the growth of health care costs in recent years.
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