Stability in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) exchange program rules may help health care providers in the short run, but PPACA’s pressure on insurers could soon squeeze providers.
David Peknay and other credit analysts at Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services make that prediction in a new commentary on the risks U.S. health care providers may face from the effects of PPACA on private health insurers.
See also: S&P charts insurers’ PPACA lifeboat problems
The U.S. Supreme Court recently upheld the authority of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to provide PPACA exchange plan premium subsidies through HHS-run PPACA exchanges. If the court had stopped HHS from offering exchange plan subsidies, that could have increased the amount exchange users pay out of pocket for coverage to about 80 percent. That, the analysts say, could have increased the size of the uninsured population, and the number of patients unable to pay their bills.