The “family glitch,” a loophole in federal rules, bars millions of people from subsidized coverage because they have access to a family member’s employer-sponsored coverage The glitch is easy to fix, through either regulation or legislation. CHIR exposes that a paper released this week claiming a fix is illegal and harmful is based on a faulty presumption.
The final 2019 Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters has been submitted to the White House for review. The initial proposal included a number of changes to the Affordable Care Act’s essential health benefits, marketplace operations, and other consumer protections. In this final post in a series of blogs analyzing public comments on the proposed rules, CHIR’s Dania Palanker examines responses from Departments of Insurance and state-based marketplaces to better understand who the rule could impact.
In the wake of a White House decision to end reimbursements to insurers for cost-sharing reduction (CSR) plans, a bipartisan agreement has emerged in Congress to restore them. However, negotiators are coming under pressure to make additional changes that would increase the number of uninsured and roll back protections for people with pre-existing conditions. CHIR’s Dania Palanker takes a look at what’s at stake and why it’s not worth compromising key Affordable Care Act protections in exchange for CSR payments.
The Trump administration recently released regulations allowing employers, colleges, and universities to eliminate birth-control coverage from their health-benefit plans because of religious or moral objections. CHIR expert Dania Palanker explains how these new rules will allow employers and schools to discriminate against women while undermining the importance of women’s health.
In the third of a multi-part blog series on state options in the wake of federal actions to roll back or relax Affordable Care Act regulation, Dania Palanker reviews potential changes to the essential health benefit standard and the implications for consumers. She discusses what state legislatures and insurance regulators can do to ensure consumers continue to access affordable health care services.
Another day, another version of the Graham-Cassidy bill. This new version makes numerous technical changes that continue to place health care for the roughly 90 million consumers who rely on the individual health insurance market or Medicaid at risk. CHIR expert Dania Palanker outlines how the bill could affect access to affordable coverage for women, people with chronic illness, older people, and others.
A federal judge found EEOC’s wellness regulations arbitrary and capricious. Dania Palanker explains the ruling, what it means for wellness programs, and what it says about the role of public comments in rule making.
This Mother’s Day, Congress is giving mothers a new health coverage menu with options for states and insurance companies to reduce their coverage through the American Health Care Act (AHCA). The selection could make you lose your brunch.
A graph has been making the rounds on the internet comparing cumulative increases in deductibles since 2011 to growth in inflation, worker earnings and health insurance premiums since it was posted as part of a Wall Street Journal blog. But the graph only tells part of the story – the part that occurred after 2011. The story of increasing deductibles in employer based health insurance is a story that is over a decade in the making.
The Obama Administration is reviewing feedback on its proposed rule to clamp down on the sale of short-term health plans. If finalized, the rule could help stabilize the Affordable Care Act marketplaces – and help protect consumers from being duped into buying plans that don’t meet their health needs. CHIR’s Dania Palanker shares what she found in a review of what short-term plans actually cover, as well as the mix of industry responses to the Administration’s proposed regulation.
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.
