First of all, while the subsidies are pegged to the benchmark plan, not everyone buys that plan. Some people buy the cheapest Silver plan. Some people buy a more expensive one. Some people buy an even cheaper Bronze plan, and some people spring for Gold or Platinum coverage. Knowing how the price of the benchmark has changed tells us a great deal about how the subsidies will be calculated in 2016, but not nearly as much as we’d like to know about what people are experiencing in the marketplace.
Moreover, the change in the benchmark rate doesn’t even tell us about the cost of any particular plan. Last year’s second-cheapest policy could be this year’s most expensive, if the insurer decides that it got the pricing wrong, while some other insurer slides into the benchmark spot.
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