Winter is finally over, and health policy research is in full bloom. In March, we read about disparities in health insurance coverage for people of color, medical debt, and preventive service usage among private health plan enrollees.
The U.S. Department of Justice has requested that a Texas district court suspend its decision to strike down the ACA’s preventive services benefits while it pursues an appeal. In her latest Health Affairs Forefront article, CHIR’s Sabrina Corlette explores what could happen if a stay is not granted in the case.
Along with “Health Policy Valentines,” February brought a host of new health policy research. This month, we read about trends in medical and pharmacy spending, the relationship between health systems’ financial performance and amounts paid by commercial plans, and mental health provider network adequacy.
High and rising health care prices are a key driver of increased cost sharing in employer plans. A significant contributor to rising prices is the consolidation in health care provider markets. In the third post of a series on policy options to improve the affordability of employer-sponsored insurance, CHIR’s Maanasa Kona and Sabrina Corlette explore strategies to limit provider consolidation and anti-competitive behavior.
States have begun conducting Medicaid redeterminations and renewals after an almost 3-year pause, a process that is being called the “Unwinding.” In their latest article for the State Health & Value Strategies program, Sabrina Corlette, Jason Levitis, and Tara Straw outline strategies state Marketplaces and insurance departments can implement to reduce coverage disruptions and ensure continuity of care.
In a new Perspectives piece for the New England Journal of Medicine, CHIR’s Sabrina Corlette and Christine Monahan help readers navigate the United States’ patchwork system of health insurance coverage, where people’s access to services and level of financial protection — not to mention whether they have coverage at all — vary depending on their birthplace, age, job, income, location, and health status.
Health insurance is becoming increasingly unaffordable for employers and workers alike. In the second in their blog series assessing policy options to shore up employer-sponsored insurance as a source of coverage, CHIR experts Linda Blumberg, Sabrina Corlette and Jack Hoadley tackle a policy that economists and budget forecasters predict would have the biggest impact: hospital price regulation.
Happy New Year! The holiday season may be over, but health policy researchers continue to bestow gifts onto our field. In December, we read about disruptions in health insurance coverage, the uninsured population, and gaps in provider network oversight. This roundup will highlight key findings of these articles, as well as their significance for our work.
The Biden administration released a draft of the annual rule governing the Affordable Care Act marketplaces and insurance reforms. In this Expert Perspective for the State Health & Value Strategies program, Sabrina Corlette and Tara Straw review provisions of particular importance to states.
Although the deadline to enroll in a marketplace plan beginning January 1 has passed in most states, Open Enrollment is still ongoing. As consumers look for an affordable health plan, it can be tempting to search for plans online, which may lead people to products sold outside of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) marketplace. This week, as a part of CHIR’s weekly Navigator Resource Guide series, we’ve highlighted FAQs discussing some of the pitfalls of buying a plan off-marketplace.
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.
