Author Archive: CHIR Faculty

Lawsuit Threatens Affordable Care Act Preexisting Condition Protections But Impact Will Depend on Where You Live

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On September 5, 2018, A federal district judge hears arguments in a lawsuit filed by 20 Republican governors and attorneys general to invalidate the Affordable Care Act, including its widely popular protections for people with pre-existing condition protections. Georgetown CHIR’s latest research for The Commonwealth Fund finds that a decision for the plaintiffs in this case could be be felt quite differently, depending on where you live.

Health Care Sharing Ministries: What Are the Risks to Consumers and Insurance Markets?

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Health Care Sharing Ministries (HCSMs) are a form of health coverage in which members – who typically share a religious belief – make monthly payments to cover expenses of other members. HCSMs do not have to comply with the consumer protections of the ACA and may provide value for some individuals, but pose risks for others. We interviewed officials in 13 states and analyzed state laws in all states to better understand state regulators’ perspectives on regulation of HCSMs.

Understanding the Market for Short-Term Health Plans: States Prepare to Identify, Oversee Sellers and Products

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Last week, the Trump administration issued a final rule reversing federal limits on short-term health coverage, allowing such plans to become a long-term alternative to individual market coverage. On the eve of this policy shift, we surveyed Departments of Insurance in the seventeen state-based marketplace states to better understand their short-term markets. We found that most states do not have a complete picture of which insurers are marketing short-term policies in their state.

State Efforts to Pass Individual Mandate Requirements Aim to Stabilize Markets and Protect Consumers

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A handful of states are moving forward with plans to implement state-level individual health insurance mandates in light of Congress’s recent elimination of the federal mandate’s financial penalty. In their latest post for The Commonwealth Fund’s To the Point blog, CHIR experts Dania Palanker, Rachel Schwab and Justin Giovannelli analyze new sate individual mandate laws and highlight innovative models that were considered in states.

New Georgetown-Society of Actuaries’ Report: Estimating the Impact of Association Health Plans on the Individual Market

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The Trump administration is expected to shortly finalize new rules expanding the availability of association health plans (AHPs) that are exempt from key Affordable Care Act regulations and standards. In a new article for The Actuary, CHIR’s Sabrina Corlette joins co-authors Josh Hammerquist and Pete Nakahata to provide an overview of federal and state AHP regulation and estimate the impact of AHPs on the ACA-compliant individual market.

A Mother’s Day Gift Basket from Congress and the Trump Administration

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This Mother’s Day, both Congress and the Trump administration have put together a special gift basket of policies that continue to threaten access to health care for women, mothers, and families everywhere. From federal funding cuts to weaker benefit requirements, CHIR’s Rachel Schwab and Dania Palanker unwrap the presents and assess their potential impact on coverage.

Short-Term, Limited-Duration Insurance and Risks to California’s Insurance Market

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In a new California Health Care Foundation issue brief, CHIR’s Dania Palanker, Kevin Lucia, JoAnn Volk, and Rachel Schwab interviewed 21 stakeholders—including state officials, brokers and agents, insurers, and experts on California insurance markets to understand California’s short-term insurance market and how proposed federal regulatory changes could change the market. Their research finds that expanding the duration of short-term plans could increase their market and add to the destabilization of the individual health insurance market, including Covered California.

How Did State-Run Health Insurance Marketplaces Fare in 2017?

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In a new Commonwealth Fund issue brief, CHIR’s Justin Giovannelli and Emily Curran interviewed leadership staff of 15 of the 17 state-run marketplaces to understand how states on the forefront of health reform perceived and responded to federal policy changes and political uncertainty in 2017. Their research finds that federal administrative actions and repeal efforts created confusion and uncertainty in 2017 that negatively affected state-run markets.

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.