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In The Southwest, Nearly 60 Percent Of Health Exchange Users Would See Tax Credits

It's estimated that 7.4 million people in the southwest will be buying insurance on their own under the Affordable Care Act. Approximately 60 percent of those purchasers will be eligible for help with their insurance bill in the form of tax credits next year.

Under the federal health law, anyone who makes less than 400 percent of the federal poverty level — that's a little more than $94,000 a year for a family of four — can get tax subsidies to help cover the costs of insurance purchased on their states health insurance exchange.

According to a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, in New Mexico about 61 percent of the 193,000 people that will be buying insurance on the exchange will be eligible for tax credits. In California, about 57 percent of the nearly 3.3 million potential insurance customers will receive tax credits.

This will be important to people looking to purchase insurance policies, because the price of insurance is going to go up: it's estimated that Nevada will see the biggest rate hikes in the region, about 179 percent higher than what's available now, while Texas will see the smallest increases next year: about 26 percent.

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