By the numbers
* 2.76 million: Number of Tennesseans with pre-existing conditions * 268,867: Number of Tennesseans selecting a marketplace plan in 2016 * 203,112: Number of Tennesseans receiving tax credits * $299: Average monthly tax credit * 81: Percent of those signing up for individual marketplace plans in 2017 who could select plan for $75 or less Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Tennessee’s senior senator Lamar Alexander visited the Chattanooga Times Free Press for a conversation with the newspaper’s editorial board. Senator Alexander discussed such topics as solar power and overtime pay issues. The number of Tennesseans without health insurance has dropped by 28 percent since the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, was adopted in 2010, adding 266,000 Tennesseans to the insurance rolls, government figures show.
Obama administration officials Tuesday said such gains, along with upgraded coverage for many employer-sponsored plans, make the controversial health program worth saving – and even expanding.
Although premium rates for individual insurance rates under the health exchange plans will jump by up to 62 percent next year in Tennessee, the overall Affordable Care Act has still provided new tax subsidies for low and moderate-income persons to buy individual plans and given protections for persons already covered with health plans through their job or through Medicare, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell. said.
“Whether Tennesseans get coverage through an employer, Medicaid, the individual market or Medicare, they have better health coverage and care today as a result of the ACA,” she said in a new report on Obamacare released just two days before Thursday’s deadline for people to sign up for individual health exchange plans for all of 2017. “Millions of Americans with all types of coverage have a stake in the future of health reform. We need to build on our progress and continue to improve health care access, quality and affordability, not move our system backward.”