Category: CHIR

Enhanced Premium Tax Credits Provide an Early Opportunity for Addressing Affordability Issues

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Enhanced premium tax credits (PTCs) have significantly reduced health insurance premiums and expanded coverage for millions of Americans, particularly low- and middle-income individuals, but these subsidies are set to expire in 2025. If Congress doesn’t act to make them permanent, premiums will rise, leading to coverage losses and greater financial hardship for millions. CHIR’s Karen Davenport discusses what the incoming Congress can do to address healthcare affordability issues.

October Research Roundup: What We’re Reading

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The leaves are falling but the latest health policy research is evergreen! Last month we read about health system competition in metropolitan areas, health care affordability prior to the American Rescue Plan (ARPA,) how high deductible health insurance can exacerbate racial and ethnic wealth disparities, and about unmet dental vision and hearing needs among low-income Medicare Advantage beneficiaries.

September Research Roundup: What We’re Reading

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While the weather may be cooling down, the research is not! This month we read about Medicare Advantage quality bonus payments, out-of-pocket drug costs for consumers, effects of enhanced premium tax credits on older adults, and strategies to increase eligibility verification and receipt of Marketplace subsidies.

CHIR Expert Testifies About Facility Fees Before Texas House Insurance Committee

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CHIR expert Christine Monahan recently testified before the Texas House Insurance Committee regarding outpatient facility fee billing. Her research highlights how facility fees contribute to significantly higher healthcare costs. In her testimony, she discussed measures to curtail hospital billing tactics that inflate costs and ways to mitigate financial burdens on patients.

How Oregon’s Merger Review Law Combats Consolidation and What Other States Can Learn From It

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Since the early 1990s, health care provider consolidation in states like Oregon has led to higher prices, reduced access, and worsened health inequities. In response, Oregon established the Health Care Market Oversight Program in 2022 to review major health care transactions, aiming to ensure they reduce costs and improve care access, especially for underserved populations. While the program has approved most transactions so far, concerns about transparency, resource adequacy, and high profit thresholds for review persist. CHIR’s Nadia Stovicek discusses the need for ongoing evaluation and improvement, and how other states can learn from Oregon.

August Research Roundup: What We’re Reading

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More hot days mean more hot research! This month we read about the growing divergence between Medicare Advantage bids and payments, the impact of enhanced premium tax credits by race and ethnicity, and about how narrow or broad ACA marketplace physician networks really are.

Taking a Look at California’s Program to Assist People Losing Medi-Cal Enroll in Marketplace Coverage

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A recently enacted law creates a streamlined pathway to health insurance for individuals who are found ineligible for Medi-Cal but are likely eligible for Marketplace subsidies. In a recent report, CHIR experts assess the critical policy and operational decisions to implement the program and how these choices have affected consumers’ coverage transitions.

Unpacking the Unwinding: Medicaid to Marketplace Coverage Transitions

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As Medicaid unwinding draws to a close, millions of people have had to find new health coverage options, many of them through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplaces. Emma Walsh-Alker discusses what we know about how they have fared, and whether state efforts to smooth coverage transitions have been successful.

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.