People living in Pima, Maricopa and Pinal counties are expected to get less help paying for health insurance compared with most consumers in the 36 states that use the federal marketplace created under the nation’s new health care law.
The calculations used to determine subsidies, which are based on a person’s income and a community’s lowest cost health policies, are driven in Arizona by a single insurer that charges much less than other companies, an analysis by The Arizona Republic found .
There could be a significant difference in the amount Arizonans collect vs. consumers in other states. A non-smoking 27-year-old Tucson resident who earns $25,000 a year won’t get any subsidy. But a person of the same age and income in Cheyenne, Wyo., qualifies for $2,154 per year, according to Value Penguin, a consumer information website.
