The Affordable Care Act Also Lowers Your Car Insurance Rate
The Affordable Care Act isn't just making health care more affordable. It's actually bringing your car insurance rates down too - not to mention workers' compensation and business liability insurance costs.
According to a study by the RAND Corporation, costs in some of these insurance lines could be reduced by 5 percent or more as a byproduct of having so many people insured because of the ACA.
There are a few reasons that other non-health insurance costs will be lower because of the ACA. Though of course none of these types of insurance are directly covered under the ACA, the injuries that they cover often are. And patients might use liability insurance less frequently to get treatment for health problems if they have health insurance. Liability claims are also expected to drop in states that limit the awards based on payments from other sources (like health insurance). On top of that, patients who go to the doctor more often are less likely to file medical malpractice claims. There are several other factors at work here too, but the bottom line is that the ACA has some pretty significant spillover effects in this area.
According to RAND researchers, liability insurance companies currently reimburse tens of billions of dollars each year for medical care related to car accidents, workplace injuries and other accidents. For instance, car insurance companies paid $35 billion for medical costs associated with these accidents in 2007, which amounted to close to 2% of all health care costs that year. Now, it's more likely that health insurance will pick up part of this tab.
More at http://www.burntorangereport.com/diary/15142/the-affordable-care-act-also-lowers-your-car-insurance-rate .
