Hospitals are starting to feel the impact of the loss of enhanced subsidies for the purchase of Affordable Care Act health insurance plans.

According to officials from a number of for-profit hospital companies, they have been surprised at how few patients who lost their Affordable Care Act enhanced premium subsidies have purchased alternative coverage, leaving them uninsured instead.  Nearly three million fewer people purchased insurance through Affordable Care Act exchanges this year than last year.

Such individuals continue to turn to hospitals for care – increasingly, for care they put off because they were uninsured, resulting in greater acuity.  Hospitals are starting to feel this on their bottom lines, both through the loss of insured patients and as a result of a decline in the number of higher-margin services they are providing.

A number of large hospital chains say this will result in losses for upcoming quarters and possibly even upcoming fiscal years.

This challenge undoubtedly is affecting community safety-net hospitals as well because they are more likely than most to serve patients who need enhanced premium subsidies to make purchasing insurance possible.

Learn more about how the end of some health premium subsidies is affecting hospital finances from the Healthcare Dive article “Hospitals feel the pinch as more patients lose insurance.”

Affordable Care Act health insurance premiums, hospital financial performance, hospital financial health, number of uninsured