At least two of the nation's largest insurers say enrollment in health insurance exchange plans has fallen over the summer, Investors Business Daily reported.
Aetna reported that fewer than 600,000 of the 720,000 people who had signed up for Obamacare policies as of May 20 were paying premiums at the end of June--and the company expects that number to fall to about 500,000 by the end of the year, according to the article.
In addition, Cigna's customer base for individual policies, including those sold through insurance exchanges, is expected to drop from 300,000 to about 280,000, the publication reported.
If those numbers are representative across the health insurance industry, the number of customers actually paying for the health insurance policies they signed up for could fall well short of administration projections--by as much as 30 percent, the article contends.
These numbers contradict federal claims from early April that most enrollees in health insurance exchanges already paid their first premium payments. In May, insurers told a congressional panel that up to 90 percent of exchange enrollees had paid their first premiums.
About 20 million Americans had insurance under the Affordable Care Act as of May 1, according to research from the Commonwealth Fund. About 8 million of those signed up for insurance through the exchanges after a surge of enrollment in March and April.
Meanwhile, The ACA's popularity fell to an all-time low in July, with 53% of Americans viewing the law unfavorably, according to a Kaiser Health Tracking Poll.
For more:
- read the Investors Business Daily article
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