By Justin Giovannelli, Kevin Lucia, and Sabrina Corlette

In the last eight months, federal policymakers have eliminated the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) tax penalty for individuals who go without coverage, failed to advance bipartisan insurance market stabilization measures, and issued new rules designed to expand forms of coverage that don’t comply with key ACA consumer protections. These developments and others are expected to raise premiums and reduce plan choices in the traditional insurance market and increase the rate of uninsurance.

States may choose to follow the new minimum federal framework, but they have other options, too. In fact, nearly half of states have begun to pursue diverse strategies aimed at shoring up their individual health insurance markets.

In a new publication for The Commonwealth Fund, Justin Giovannelli, Kevin, Lucia, and Sabrina Corlette describe the actions states are taking to promote access to affordable, comprehensive, individual market coverage. This work marks the launch of an interactive map that will continuously track these and other state policy choices likely to affect state individual markets. You can read the full publication here and explore the interactive map here.