When open enrollment begins for almost 632,000 South Carolinians on Saturday, they may see their health insurance premiums more than double, according to reports from nonprofit health research organization KFF. At the end of the year, enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies expire, potentially leaving well over half a million people participating in the marketplace in South Carolina with higher costs.
Some people will not be able to pay the new price, leaving them without health insurance, said Nathan Boucher, a public policy and nursing associate research professor at Duke University. “Everybody’s going to see a rise in cost,” Boucher said. “And those who are on the lower income spectrum, they could just not have insurance whatsoever. But even people on the upper echelon are going to feel the pinch.”
Of the South Carolina residents that are enrolled in a marketplace plan, over 95% use premium subsidies, some of which will expire, according to a May report from the South Carolina Institute of Medicine and Public Health. The subsidies allow people to purchase private health insurance at a discounted rate.