"There is a growing divide between states running their own insurance exchanges and those relying on the federal government. It's hard to tease out exactly why, but one big difference is that the states have not reduced outreach so significantly like the federal government."

—Larry Levitt, Senior Vice President, Kaiser Family Foundation

According to the CBO, there has been a notable decrease in people buying individual market insurance outside of the federal and state Affordable Care Act exchanges. In 2016, 7.4 million bought such coverage, while just 4.9 million did so in 2018. In addition, the number of people buying unsubsidized plans on the exchanges decreased from 2016-2018. About 1.6 million bought such plans in 2016, compared to 1.3 million in 2018.

Excerpted from: Fierce Healthcare