3 top markets for non-PPACA health products

In theory, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) could eliminate the market for “gap filler” products, by using a combination of subsidy carrots and tax penalty sticks to push all people who can possibly afford major medical coverage to sign up for it.

In reality, millions of people went without major medical coverage in 2014 and, as of mid-February, were planning to stay bare this year.

The Center for Health System Reform at McKinsey & Company surveyed about 3,000 U.S. adults in February to find out what they were thinking about health coverage.

Some of the survey participants were “persistently uninsured.”

For PPACA exchange managers and policymakers worried about people who lack PPACA-compliant major medical coverage, they’re headache.

For insurers and producers who want to sell the gap-filler products that have survived PPACA — and are clever enough and quiet enough not to trigger a regulatory crackdown — the McKinsey results may identify interesting groups of potential prospects.

To look at the types of potential prospects who might be present in the McKinsey survey report, read on. 

1. People with a decent income.

In the McKinsey survey sample, only 40 percent of the persistently uninsured reported having income under 250 percent of the federal poverty level.

That means 60 percent had incomes over 250 percent of the federal poverty level.