Tag: enrollment

June Research Roundup: What We’re Reading

For June’s monthly roundup of health policy research, Nia Gooding reviewed studies on ground ambulance rides and surprise medical bills, the ways health plan pricing mechanisms affect health disparities, and the impact of using auto-enrollment to achieve universal coverage.

Removing Roadblocks: Special Enrollment Period Data Show Increase in Marketplace Signups

Last month, the Biden administration established a temporary special enrollment period (SEP) on the federal health insurance marketplace in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In the first two weeks of the SEP, the federal marketplace saw a rise in enrollment activity, and the expansion of premium subsidies under the American Rescue Plan is expected to generate even greater enrollment increases. CHIR’s Rachel Schwab takes a look at how recent federal actions tap into the Affordable Care Act’s potential and expand its reach.

Navigator Guide FAQs Of The Week: Who is Eligible for Financial Assistance?

President Biden has recently signed an executive order to re-open the federal marketplace for a COVID-19 Special Enrollment Period. The CHIR team will be highlighting a selection of relevant frequently asked questions (FAQs) from our recently updated Navigator Resource Guide for uninsured consumers who are seeking health coverage during this time. In this installation, we answer FAQs about financial assistance that may be available to some individuals and families.

Navigator Guide FAQ of the Week: Who Is Eligible To Purchase Coverage Through the Marketplace?

November 1 marked the first day of open enrollment on the Affordable Care Act marketplaces. To help Navigators and others assisting consumers with marketplace eligibility and enrollment, we’ve created the Navigator Resource Guide. Each week we’ll feature answers to questions that may be top of mind for consumers, such as who is eligible to shop for a marketplace plan.

As Maryland Charts a New Course for Lowering Barriers to Coverage, Feds Could Raise Them

Maryland is implementing a program that offers a new, easy way to enroll in comprehensive and affordable health insurance. At the same time, the federal government is considering ending auto renewal in the marketplaces, which facilitates millions of enrollments each year. CHIR’s Rachel Schwab takes a look at Maryland’s new program, and how state and federal enrollment policy can impact consumers’ access to coverage.

Swimming against the Tide: Policies in State-Based Marketplace States Help Counter Negative Trends in Uninsurance Rates

The latest U.S. Census data show the uninsured rate for nonelderly adults is rising,  including among middle- and higher-income people who do not qualify for Affordable Care Act premium subsidies. Such an increase is partly attributable to policies implemented by the Trump administration to undermine the ACA. CHIR’s Olivia Hoppe explains that when it comes to individual market enrollment, however, national numbers mask significant differences in state-to-state performance.

August Research Round Up: What We’re Reading

This August, CHIR’s Olivia Hoppe summarized helpful resources on premiums and cost-sharing for working families, interventions to increase enrollment, the impact of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on coverage gaps, and surprise billing prevalence.

ACA Marketplace Open Enrollment Numbers Reveal the Impact of State-Level Policy and Operational Choices on Performance

During the last open enrollment period, the Affordable Care Act’s marketplaces faced a number of headwinds, including federal policy changes predicted to curb enrollment. Given myriad obstacles to enrollment efforts, it came as no surprise that overall marketplace plan selections dropped slightly this year. But a deeper dive into enrollment trends reveals that most state-based marketplaces outperformed the federally facilitated marketplace. In a new post for the Commonwealth Fund’s To the Point blog, CHIR’s Rachel Schwab and Sabrina Corlette unpack data from the recent open enrollment period to see how the marketplaces performed during a turbulent time, finding that certain policy and operational decisions were associated with better results.

The opinions expressed here are solely those of the individual blog post authors and do not represent the views of Georgetown University, the Center on Health Insurance Reforms, any organization that the author is affiliated with, or the opinions of any other author who publishes on this blog.