Commonwealth analysis: Premium spike has little to do with ACA

The Kaiser Family Foundation report released earlier this week that found that health insurance premiums rose 9 percent from 2010 to 2011 has stirred debate about the impact of federal reform on insurance costs, but analysts from the Commonwealth Fund have concluded that ACA provisions played a small part in the increase (Source: “Understanding the Rise in Health Insurance Premiums,” Commonwealth Fund Blog, Sept. 30, 2011).

At issue is the release of  Kaiser Family Foundation/Health Research and Educational Trust Employer Health Benefits Survey (pdf, 225 pages) that found that premiums rose 8 percent for single coverage and 9 percent for family coverage from 2010 to 2011, up from 3 percent for 2009–2010.

While some have attributed the spike to passage of the ACA, the Commonwealth researchers attribute only 1.8 percentage points of the 8 to 9 percent increase to health reform provisions. The remainder of the increase is attributed to issues such as the cost of medical technology, overall inflation and an aging population.

“Moreover, this marginal increase as a result of the reforms also means that families have better coverage that protects them from catastrophic health care costs as well as lower out-of-pocket costs for preventive services like colonoscopies and mammograms,” write study authors Jon R. Gabel of the National Opinion Research Center, and Roland McDevitt and Ryan Lore of the consulting firm Towers Watson. “It’s logical that improvements in the quality of the product would increase the cost of premiums and lower out-of-pocket costs to some degree.”