A snowy first week of January gave us plenty of time to read some of the last research from 2024. This month we read about prescription drug pricing and the impacts of rebates on consumers, as well as market shares of Medicare Advantage carriers.
The Association of Health Care Journalists has released an updated, interactive 50-state Media Guide to help journalists navigate the complexities of the U.S. health care system, offering detailed data on health insurance coverage, state policies, and regulatory agencies. Developed in partnership with Georgetown University’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms, the guide includes a national overview, state-level resources, and essential tools for reporting on health coverage and consumer experiences.
The Biden administration has advanced several pro-competition reforms aimed at lowering health care costs and increasing consumer choice, an area of potential alignment with the incoming Trump administration. CHIR’s Kennah Watts discusses competition as a bipartisan policy and what the incoming Trump administration can do to support competitive markets and improve health care affordability.
In November, CHIR was thankful for the latest health policy research. We read about charity care provided by non-profit hospitals, Marketplace coverage for small business and self-employed workers, and out-of-pocket costs of traditional fee-for-service Medicare versus Medicare Advantage.
A new proposal in New York State seeks to reduce rising outpatient care costs by implementing site-neutral payment. The bill aims to cap payments, eliminate facility fees, and protect consumers from higher costs. In her latest article for CHIRblog, Karen Davenport breaks down this new proposal.
The Biden Administration has proposed a rule to expand coverage of preventive services, including over-the-counter (OTC) contraceptives, without cost sharing. However, the proposal’s future is uncertain due to potential legal challenges and the political factors surrounding reproductive health. CHIR faculty Leila Sullivan and Amy Killelea discuss the proposal.
The Affordable Care Act mandates that health plans in the individual and small-group markets cover essential health benefits (EHB), with states setting the scope through a benchmark plan. A new brief for the Commonwealth Fund by CHIR faculty explores how states have used recent flexibility to expand EHB, address consumer needs, and advance health policy, while highlighting ongoing challenges
In 2023, for the first time, more than half of Medicare beneficiaries were enrolled in Medicare Advantage (MA) plans, which offer private insurance alternatives to traditional Medicare, with 34 million enrollees in MA and 23 million in standalone Part D drug plans. A compendium of 70 policy proposals, created by Georgetown’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms, Medicare Policy Initiative offers a comprehensive resource for improving these programs, addressing issues like cost efficiency, provider networks, and many more.
In a recently published JAMA article, CHIR’s Maanasa Kona discusses the steps states can take to improve the financial assistance programs offered by hospitals, as well as the need for better state oversight of hospitals’ eligibility criteria and decision-making.
On November 20, CHIR hosted an all-star lineup of speakers to discuss how increased transparency can help support efforts to improve affordability in our health care system. In this post we provide some top takeaways from the event and a link to the recording.
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.
