The Financial Consequences of Terminating the ACA's Cost-Sharing Reduction Payments

To make health care more affordable for lower-income Americans, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) reduces both the cost of their insurance premiums and the out-of-pocket expenses they pay for care. Wake Forest University’s Mark A. Hall and Virginia Commonwealth University’s Michael J. McCue say one of the looming issues in the ACA repeal-and-replace discussion is whether the federal government will continue to reimburse insurance companies for these reductions in patient cost-sharing.