Average Worcester Resident to Do Better Under Trumpcare than Obamacare Says New Study

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

GoLocalWorcester News Team

Trumpcare is set to replace Obamacare and a new study says the average Worcester resident is going to do better.

According to a recent study completed by WalletHub, the average Providence resident will have a positive subsidy difference of $3,405 under Trumpcare compared to Obamacare.

The study shows that the average Trumpcare tax subsidy for Worcester is $5,000, while the average Obamacare subsidy is $1,595. WalletHub then does the math to show the subsidy difference is a gain of $3,405.

“According to estimates by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the recently proposed American Health Care Act — unofficially going by the names “Trumpcare” and “Ryancare” — would raise the average health-insurance premium for an individual policyholder by 15 to 20 percent just one or two years from now and lower federal subsidies. In contrast, the CBO projected, average Obamacare premiums would decrease 10 percent by 2026,” said WalletHub.

Cities Most Affected

According to the study, Yuma, Arizona is the city that will do the worst under Trumpcare. The study shows they will have a subsidy difference of -$7,815.

The city that will do the best is Sterling Heights Michigan with a subsidy difference of $5,918.

See the rankings in the map below

Source: WalletHub

The Method

To assess the impact of the proposed Affordable Health Care Act (AHCA) on American households, WalletHub’s analysts compared 457 U.S. cities of varying sizes based on the difference in premium tax subsidies that a joint-filing household would receive under the AHCA, or Trumpcare, and the Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare, which is currently in effect, in each city.

WalletHub organized their sample according to the following population-size guidelines:

Large City: More than 300,000 residents
Midsize City: 125,000 to 300,000 residents
Small City: 75,000 to 125,000 residents

In order to measure impact, WalletHub first determined the subsidies that a two-person, joint-filing household would receive under each health-care law.

For Obamacare subsidies, they referred to the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Health Insurance Marketplace Calculator. Because Obamacare subsidies are based on an individual’s age, income and location, WalletHub assumed for each city a two-person household earning the median income. They also assumed a two-person household, both members of median age, enrolled in Marketplace coverage and not using tobacco.

WalletHub then averaged the subsidies that each household would receive in the 10 most populated zip codes in each city.

Finally, WalletHub calculated the difference in subsidies from Trumpcare and Obamacare for each city and used the resulting differences to rank the cities. We attributed a rank of 1 to the city that registered the highest difference.