Survey: $100 a Month Remains Max Health Insurance Premium For Most Americans

For third year in a row, $100 a month persists as most common price ceiling

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Sep 25, 2017, 08:33 ET

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Sept. 25, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- For the third year since 2015, HealthPocket^® conducted a nationwide poll exploring health insurance affordability. HealthPocket asked 1,225 adults across the country, "What is the highest monthly premium you could afford to pay for health insurance in 2018?" Slightly more than half of all Americans surveyed answered, "$100 a month or less." $100 or less was also the most common answer when similar surveys were conducted by HealthPocket in 2016 and 2015. For each of the surveys from 2015 through 2017, 50 percent or more of respondents indicated that $100 or less was the most they could spend on monthly health insurance premiums. The $100 affordability ceiling for most Americans has maintained while the average market premiums of Affordable Care Act (ACA) plans experienced considerable increases in 2016, 2017, and now possibly in 2018.

For consumers buying insurance on a government exchange, 83 percent of enrollees had incomes that qualified for premium subsidies. The average 2017 premium on Healthcare.Gov after subsidies were applied was $106. However, prices for the unsubsidized are quite different. For example, below are the average 2017 premiums across the nation for a 40 year-old nonsmoker for each of the four standard "Obamacare" plans:

Bronze - $350
Silver - $411
Gold - $522
Platinum - $623

Before subsidies were applied, the average premium for enrollees on Healthcare.Gov in 2017 was $489.

The very different financial obligations between the unsubsidized and the subsidized are among the forces that contribute to substantially different perspectives on the Affordable Care Act across the nation.

In the case of the 2017 survey, $100 or less was more than twice as common as the second most popular answer, "$200 a month." The $200 price ceiling accounted for only 19 percent of respondents. Interestingly, the third most popular response was the most expensive option, "Over $500 a month." Nearly 11 percent of respondents indicated that they could afford this premium expense. The remaining answers ($300, $400, $500) each were chosen by less than 10 percent of respondents.

The full findings as well as the report methodology can be reviewed at "Survey: $100 a Month Remains The Maximum Health Insurance Premium Most Americans Can Afford."

HealthPocket.com is a free website that compares and ranks all health insurance plans, helping individuals, families, and small businesses to make their best health plan decisions. HealthPocket publishes health insurance market analyses and other consumer advocacy research. HealthPocket's research is nonpartisan and uses only objective data from government, non-profit, and private sources that carry no conditions that might restrict the site from serving as an unbiased resource. HealthPocket, Inc. is independently managed and based in Mountain View, California. Learn more at www.HealthPocket.com.

SOURCE HealthPocket