New Englanders are a frugal bunch, so they may want to take note that when it comes to the Affordable Care Act, healthcare.gov was more efficient than the state-run exchanges.
A new report out from a former Obama Administration official finds that the cost-per-enrollee was lower in federally-run exchanges than in state-run exchanges.
Using the total spent in the 36 states where the federal government was in charge, the average cost-per enrollee was $647. In the state-run exchanges (including D.C.), the average cost was $1,503.
That trend holds in New England, where Maine and New Hampshire had the lowest per-enrollee cost.
Health Exchange Cost Per ACA Enrollee | Create Infographics
The author of the report (Jay Angoff) offers three takeaways:
- The more states in which the federal exchange (healthcare.gov) exists, the more money taxpayers save.
- Lawmakers who refuse to approve state-run exchanges are, perhaps unintentionally, making the implementation of the ACA more efficient.
- Much of the money spent on state-run exchanges was not well-spent.