美国国家公共电台 NPR Analysts Predict Health Care Marketplace Premiums Will Stabilize In 2019

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

All right, consumers who buy their insurance through the Affordable¹ Care Act markets might be pleasantly surprised about their premium² costs come this fall. The price of premiums³ could actually drop in several states, as NPR's Alison Kodjak reports.

ALISON KODJAK, BYLINE⁴: Prices for Affordable Care Act health plans look like they're going to rise less than 4 percent next year. That estimate, based on the website acasignups.net, is based on insurance companies' early filings in all 50 states.

KATHERINE HEMPSTEAD: The news about the marketplace this year is very good, both in terms of the premium increase and the extent of carrier participations.

KODJAK: That's Katherine Hempstead, a senior policy adviser⁵ at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which supports NPR's coverage⁶ of health. She says premiums are rising on average at about the same rate as medical inflation. That's a big change from the double-digit rate increases in the last few years.

HEMPSTEAD: And we're seeing that the double-digit kinds of increases are occurring in a small handful of states...

KODJAK: For example, Kentucky and Connecticut.

HEMPSTEAD: ...But they're definitely the exception. In quite a few states, we're actually seeing premiums going down.

KODJAK: Like in New Hampshire, where prices are expected to fall about 13 percent, and Tennessee, where they could drop 11 percent. And, Hempstead says, more insurance companies are offering more policies in more states.

HEMPSTEAD: After a very sort of tortured birth and infancy⁷, it sort of seems like the market is, in some ways, you know, at a - at a very stable place right now.

KODJAK: She says insurance companies have figured out how to make a profit from the policies they sell on the ACA exchanges, so now they're expanding their offerings. But premiums would actually be falling next year but for the actions of the Trump⁸ administration and Republicans in Congress, says Charles Gaba, who tracks just about everything about the ACA on his website, acasignups.net. Those actions include getting rid of the tax penalty for those people who don't buy health insurance and encouraging insurers to sell stripped-down, short-term policies. Both moves are draining healthy, young people out of the ACA market.

CHARLES GABA: The reality is that if you didn't have those factors, if you didn't have the expansion of short-term plans and especially the repeal⁹ of the mandate¹⁰ penalty for next year, average premiums would most likely be dropping by a good 4 or 5 percent.

KODJAK: Whether premiums go up or down, consumers who qualify for a subsidy¹¹ will likely pay just about the same for their insurance next year as they're paying now. Open enrollment¹² on the federal exchange and in most states begins November 1. Alison Kodjak, NPR News.

(SOUDBITE OF SOLAR HEAVY'S "FIREFLY")

1 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。

2 premium   

n.加付款；赠品；adj.高级的；售价高的

参考例句：

• You have to pay a premium for express delivery.寄快递你得付额外费用。
• Fresh water was at a premium after the reservoir was contaminated.在水库被污染之后，清水便因稀而贵了。

3 premiums   

n.费用( premium的名词复数 )；保险费；额外费用；（商品定价、贷款利息等以外的）加价

参考例句：

• He paid premiums on his life insurance last year. 他去年付了人寿保险费。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Moves are afoot to increase car insurance premiums. 现正在酝酿提高汽车的保险费。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

6 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

7 infancy   

n.婴儿期；幼年期；初期

参考例句：

• He came to England in his infancy.他幼年时期来到英国。
• Their research is only in its infancy.他们的研究处于初级阶段。

8 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

9 repeal   

n.废止，撤消；v.废止，撤消

参考例句：

• He plans to repeal a number of current policies.他计划废除一些当前的政策。
• He has made out a strong case for the repeal of the law.他提出强有力的理由，赞成废除该法令。

10 mandate   

n.托管地；命令，指示

参考例句：

• The President had a clear mandate to end the war.总统得到明确的授权结束那场战争。
• The General Election gave him no such mandate.大选并未授予他这种权力。

11 subsidy   

n.补助金，津贴

参考例句：

• The university will receive a subsidy for research in artificial intelligence.那个大学将得到一笔人工智能研究的补助费。
• The living subsidy for senior expert's family is included in the remuneration.报酬已包含高级专家家人的生活补贴。

12 enrollment   

n.注册或登记的人数；登记

参考例句：

• You will be given a reading list at enrollment.注册时你会收到一份阅读书目。
• I just got the enrollment notice from Fudan University.我刚刚接到复旦大学的入学通知书。