On March 23, 2025, we celebrated the 15th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). In this post, CHIR experts reflect on how the law’s reforms affected people’s access to affordable, high quality health insurance, and what the next 15 years might bring.
Last year, reports emerged of unscrupulous health insurance brokers enrolling people in marketplace coverage or switching enrollees to different plans without permission. In their latest piece for the Commonwealth Fund, CHIR’s Justin Giovannelli and Stacey Pogue explore how policymakers can crack down on broker misconduct.
Massachusetts recently enacted a law to increase transparency and oversight of private equity in healthcare following the collapse of Steward Health Care. CHIR experts Stacey Pogue and Kennah Watts break down the law and how it serves as a potential model for other states facing similar challenges with healthcare corporatization.
High and rising healthcare costs in the U.S. are driven largely by escalating hospital prices, fueled by increasing consolidation among health systems. In a recent Issue Brief for the Milbank Memorial Fund, Sabrina Corlette and Karen Davenport discuss what states can do to enhance premium rate review programs, to ultimately curb provider price increases.
A case before the Supreme Court and a new Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services could substantially weaken the ACA’s guarantee of no-cost preventive services in private insurance. Experts Sabrina Corlette and Tara Straw provide a roadmap for state policymakers to protect their residents, in a recent article for State Health and Value Strategies.
The Notice of Benefit & Payment Parameters prescribes standards and rules that govern insurers and Marketplaces under the ACA. This annual regulation, that went into effect January 15, represents a final set of health insurance policies from the Biden administration focusing on quality and affordability. In their latest piece for Health Affairs Forefront, Sabrina Corlette and Jason Levitis discuss this final rule and what it means.
Like other employer health plans across the commercial insurance market, state employee health plans (SEHPs) regularly face significant increases in health care costs. A new piece by CHIR faculty for Health Affairs explores how SEHPs’ use of provider-based reference pricing to constrain cost growth has been gaining traction.
The No Surprises Act (NSA) has largely succeeded in protecting consumers from surprise medical bills by reducing out-of-network billing and establishing a dispute resolution process. However, while compliance has improved, challenges with the IDR process, legal actions, and incomplete data hinder a full assessment of its cost containment goals and effectiveness. CHIR experts Nadia Stovicek and Jack Hoadley discuss recent complaint data in their newest piece for CHIRblog.
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.
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.
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.
