--- title: AHCA Could Jack Up Premiums for 6.3 Million With Pre-Existing Conditions description: A new report finds that the House Obamacare replacement bill would leave 6.3 million Americans at risk for soaring health premiums. authors: - name: Elizabeth O'Brien role: Deputy Editor url: https://money.com/author/elizabeth-obrien/ bio: Elizabeth O’Brien is Money's deputy editor. She has covered personal finance for more than 10 years, with a focus on retirement planning and health care. Subscribe to her weekly newsletter, Retire with Money. at_money_since: 2016 articles: 194 covers: - Insurance - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Personal Finance - Pets - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://twitter.com/elizobrien former_staff: true published: '2017-05-17T17:27:26.000Z' modified: '2024-04-17T05:53:13.000Z' section: Insurance tags: - AHCA - american health care act - health costs - Obamacare - Obamacare replacement - pre-existing conditions word_count: 335 canonical: https://money.com/ahca-premiums-pre-existing-conditions-obamacare-replacement/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Nikita Hendrix, center (in wheelchair), waits to be treated for a pressure sore on his foot, during a visit to the emergency room at Long Beach Memorial Hospital on August 13, 2014. In one of the first signs of the effects of Obamacare, most hospitals in Los Angeles County had an increase in visits to their emergency departments in the first part of 2014.](https://img.money.com/2017/05/170517-pre-existing-conditions-insurance-gap.jpg) *Nikita Hendrix, center (in wheelchair), waits to be treated for a pressure sore on his foot, during a visit to the emergency room at Long Beach Memorial Hospital on August 13, 2014. In one of the first signs of the effects of Obamacare, most hospitals in Los Angeles County had an increase in visits to their emergency departments in the first part of 2014.* The American Health Care Act (AHCA) could lead to much higher health insurance premiums for more than six million Americans with [pre-existing conditions](https://money.com/pre-existing-conditions-ahca/), according to a new [report](http://kff.org/health-reform/issue-brief/gaps-in-coverage-among-people-with-pre-existing-conditions/?utm_campaign=KFF-2017-May-Pre-Ex-AHCA-Coverage-Gap&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8M-vVBz0aleUGxL_h2T7SnKQKBOrdd8XOOM8bnplB0xNOPRjrDFG_Rhu9eGwh7H1Svj_tSyJ9jZU3S2mAxGBgKXCq9zAbTIsKpszudOEufNsmaIDE&_hsmi=52007627&utm_content=52007627&utm_source=hs_email&hsCtaTracking=148c8fd6-8ba2-4f02-a508-45b17365a226%7C3ae33023-7ef1-44a9-a84c-b2a8d055e6bd) by the Kaiser Family Foundation. That Obamacare replacement bill, which [narrowly passed](https://money.com/ahca-new-republican-health-care-bill/) the House of Representatives earlier this month, would allow states to apply for a waiver from the Obamacare provision prohibiting medical underwriting. Under that practice, insurers base premiums on consumers’ health status. Before Obamacare was fully implemented in 2014, medical underwriting often led to people with pre-existing conditions being charged more--or denied coverage outright--on the individual market. The AHCA would shield people from medical underwriting if they maintain “continuous coverage,” which the bill defines as not having a gap in coverage of 63 or more consecutive days in the prior year. But according to the Kaiser Family Foundation analysis, 6.3 million Americans with serious pre-existing conditions had at least a two-month coverage gap in 2015. These people have conditions such as cancer and diabetes that would have likely led to them being declined coverage on the individual market before 2014. The AHCA wouldn’t allow these people to be denied coverage, but they could be charged prohibitively high premiums for up to a year in states that apply for a waiver. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see premiums of three, four or five times what a healthy person would pay, says Karen Pollitz, senior fellow at the Kaiser Family Foundation and one of the report’s authors. “These are the ones insurers don’t want,” Pollitz says. These sicker patients’ needs are such that insurers know they’ll lose money on these people regardless of what the companies charge in premiums, Pollitz says, so the insurance companies would set premiums so high that these individuals couldn’t afford coverage in the first place. The Senate is now working on its own health care bill, and the version that emerges could make significant changes to the version that passed in the House. 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