Pa. realtors deal with big increases on ACA exchange

(Harrisburg) — Fourteen percent of Realtors relied on the Affordable Care Act exchange for health insurance in 2016.

As independent contractors, they’re one group that has been slammed by rate increase.

York County real estate agent Kim Moyer  has watched his premium jump by more than 50 percent almost every year since he signed up for the exchange in 2014.

One year, it increased almost $600 — enough money, he points out, for a second mortgage.

Now he’s paying more than $1,700 a month for him and his wife.

“It’s an incredible amount of money to throw out every month that is bad insurance, really just catastrophic insurance, that I could be putting back into the economy — rather than the insurance companies’ pockets,” he says.

The 2018 increase comes after President Donald Trump cut federal subsidies, but Pennsylvania Association of Realtors President Kathy McQuilkin says the price jumps started under President Obama.

She says the trend has led realtors’ groups to push for a new system.

“We support legislation to create a federal framework that would allow for bona fide trade organizations such as ourselves to have association health plans,” she says.

She also notes with a median salary of about $42,000, many realtors won’t qualify for low-income ACA subsidies.