Category: Implementing the Affordable Care Act

Fixing the Family Glitch: Federal Rules Aim to Improve Coverage Affordability for Working Families

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Roughly 5 million people are currently unable to access marketplace subsidies due to a flawed interpretation of the Affordable Care Act dubbed the “family glitch.” Last month, the Biden administration proposed new rules, grounded in a revised interpretation of the law, which would increase access to affordable coverage for families of low and moderate-income workers. Karen Davenport looks at the proposed regulatory fix and how it will impact consumers and other health insurance stakeholders.

New Georgetown Report on Medicaid and Marketplace Network Adequacy

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A recently published report from Georgetown’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms and Center for Children & Families finds significant differences in standards for network adequacy between Medicaid and Marketplace plans, as well as gaps in oversight. The authors share several recommendations for protecting enrollees’ timely access to health services.

California’s Marketplace Tries New Tactics to Reduce the Number of Uninsured and Underinsured

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Despite a significant reduction in the uninsured rate over the last decade, millions of people still lack coverage, and many people who have insurance are unable to access care because of high cost sharing. In a new post for the Commonwealth Fund’s To the Point blog, CHIR’s Rachel Schwab, Justin Giovannelli, and Kevin Lucia look at California’s recently adopted strategies to reduce and prevent uninsurance and lower cost barriers to care for marketplace enrollees.

The Expiration of the Public Health Emergency Also Ends Policies to Lower Health Access Barriers

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As we approach the end of the public health emergency, Medicaid will not be the only program affected by pandemic relief policies that expire. CHIR’s Emma Walsh-Alker and Megan Houston reviewed other policies that expire at the end of the PHE including mandated coverage of COVID-19 tests and related care, lower barriers to telehealth, and ease the use of mental health and substance use services.

March Research Roundup: What We’re Reading

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Along with the cherry blossoms, new health policy research was in full bloom this month. In addition to filling out our March Madness brackets, the CHIR team reviewed studies on health insurance rates during the pandemic, how the Affordable Care Act (ACA) impacted women’s health coverage, and consumer access to high-quality marketplace plans.

Stakeholder Perspectives on CMS’s 2023 Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters: State Insurance Departments and Marketplaces

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After the Biden administration issued the proposed 2023 “Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters,” several hundred stakeholders provided feedback on the new set of rules governing the ACA’s marketplaces and health insurance standards. To better understand the impact of the proposed rules, CHIR reviewed a sample of stakeholder comments. For the third blog in our series, Rachel Schwab summarizes comments submitted by state departments of insurance and state-based marketplaces.

February Research Roundup: What We’re Reading

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In honor of Black History Month, for the February edition of CHIR’s monthly research roundup we reviewed new health policy research centering the experiences of Black people in the U.S. health care system, including structural racism in health care policy, the impact of state Affordable Care Act (ACA) implementation on racial and ethnic minority populations, and trends in coverage, care access, and health outcomes among Black Americans.

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.