New health policy research topped CHIR’s list of beach reads this July. For the latest monthly research roundup, we reviewed studies on marketplace enrollees’ denied claims, how marketplace coverage has benefitted small business and self-employed workers, and out-of-pocket spending on insulin.
Employer-sponsored insurance is the largest source of health coverage in the U.S., but the employer market’s historic status as the “backbone” of the U.S. health care system is imperiled by rising health care costs. A public health insurance option could help reduce health care costs and expand access to coverage for people with job-based insurance, and has received increasing support among employers.
The ACA requires that most insurers and employers cover a set of preventive health services at no cost to enrollees. Estimates suggest that more than 150 million people have access to over 100 services such as cancer screenings, contraception, and vaccines without any out-of-pocket costs. A case pending in federal court threatens to cut off consumers’ access by allowing insurers to impose cost-sharing on these services or, in some cases, cease covering them altogether. CHIR’s Rachel Schwab takes a look at some of the currently free services in jeopardy.
Utilization management is one tool that insurers can use to help keep premiums in check, but it comes with significant tradeoffs for patients. CHIR’s Megan Houston considers the history and current landscape of utilization management tools, what they are used for and what policymakers are doing to keep them in check.
Following the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, analyses project up to half of women and girls in the U.S. between the ages of 15 and 44 will live in states that significantly restrict or ban abortion services. The scale and geographic reach of these bans intensifies questions about travel costs and access to these services. Employers are looking at ways to cover abortion-related travel costs for workers.
Health insurers have begun to submit their proposed premium rates for 2023, and they’re not looking pretty. CHIR’s Sabrina Corlette dives into what is driving hefty premium increases in her annual review of the rate justifications insurers submit to state insurance departments.
Congress has spent months debating an extension of enhanced premium tax credits enacted under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. However, as CHIR’s Sabrina Corlette and the Urban Institute’s Jason Levitis discuss in this recent Health Affairs Forefront article, the clock is ticking. Continued delays would likely cause coverage losses and additional costs that wouldn’t be restored even if a subsidy extension is later enacted.
It’s finally summer, and during the latest heat wave, the CHIR team cooled off with new health policy research. In June, we reviewed studies on improving race and ethnicity data collection in health insurance marketplaces, the value of health savings accounts, and variation in medical debt accumulation across the U.S.
As private equity involvement in the health care industry increases, policymakers and other stakeholders are sounding the alarm and calling for better regulation to control costs and protect patients. CHIR’s Maanasa Kona takes a look at the role of private equity in the health care sector and how it impacts consumers.
The American Rescue Plan Act has led to record-high marketplace enrollment and significant savings for millions of consumers. But the law’s enhanced marketplace subsidies are set to lapse at the end of the year. In a new post for the Commonwealth Fund’s To the Point blog, Katie Keith explains why there is urgency for Congress to act sooner rather than later.
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.
