Dive Brief:
- Despite widespread concerns that the insurance industry will see big increases in costs if few young people enroll, a new study suggests that this is not the case.
- A Kaiser Family Foundation study found that if only half of the number of young adults enroll in plans sold on the health insurance exchanges as what the Obama administration hopes for, health plans would only have to increase premiums by 2.4 percent in 2015 to cover their costs.
- Experts say the key for insurers is to recruit healthy members regardless of their age to help offset the costs of sicker members.
Dive Insight:
These findings may be a relief for the Obama administration, which has good reason to fear that so-called "young invincibles" may opt out of health exchange coverage. That being said, attracting healthy beneficiaries of any age is harder to do then attracting the sick ones who need the insurance badly. Either way, the administration has its work cut out for it.