In most markets, the low premiums would “attract a sufficient number of relatively healthy people to stabilize the market.”
But the budget office also warned that markets in states
that allowed insurers to charge higher premiums for people with pre-existing conditions — whether high blood pressure, a one-time visit to a specialist or cancer — could become unstable.
Millions of people could also wind up with little choice but to buy cheap plans
that provided minimal coverage in states that opted out of requiring insurers to cover maternity care, mental health and addiction treatment or rehabilitation services, among other services required under the Affordable Care Act.
The Affordable Care Act has enabled many of those workers to get transitional coverage
that provides a bridge to the next phase of their lives — a stopgap to get health insurance if they leave a job, are laid off, start a business or retire early.