Use of Health Exchanges Projected To Decline After 2018

More Americans expected to opt out and pay the penalty

After 2018, ObamaCare exchanges will be all downhill.

At least that's how it looks to the Congressional Budget Office. Its projections imply that the number of people getting subsidized coverage will ramp up from the 2014 start to peak at 22.3 million in 2018, but then fall by 1.8 million over the next five years.

The ObamaCare exchange exodus would result from subsidies covering a smaller share of premiums over time, leading more people to go without insurance and, in many cases, pay a tax penalty.