April 18, 2014
The NYT again obsessed about the number of young people signing up for the exchanges, telling readers they “tend to be healthier.” Yes, everyone knows they tend to be healthier, which is why they pay on average a third of the premium of the oldest age band (55-64). As the Kaiser Foundation showed, a skewing by age would have little consequence since the difference in premiums largely reflects the difference in average costs. What will matter for the success of the exchanges is if there is a skewing by health conditions with less healthy people of all ages being disproportionately likely to enroll.
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