The Affordable Care Act envisions that the new health insurance marketplaces will encourage plans to provide better quality, more cost-effective care. But achieving that is easier said than done. A recent report by CHIR faculty Sarah Dash and Sabrina Corlette charts action by the state-based marketplaces to achieve quality improvements and assesses future prospects. Ashley Williams provides an overview.
The ACA includes numerous consumer protections designed to remedy shortcomings in the availability, affordability, adequacy, and transparency of individual market insurance. However, because states continue to be the primary regulators of health insurance and implementers of these requirements, consumers are likely to experience some of these new protections differently, depending on where they live. CHIR’s latest issue brief finds that consumers nationwide will enjoy improved protections in each area targeted by the reforms.
Regulations issued last month by the Department of Health and Human Services show that laws in more than a dozen states may be invalid because they go too far in restricting the work of consumer assistance personnel certified under the Affordable Care Act. In a blog post published by The Commonwealth Fund, Justin Giovannelli, Kevin Lucia, and Sabrina Corlette discuss these new rules and how they affect state efforts to regulate consumer assisters.
The Commonwealth Fund recently hosted a one-hour webinar on the small business health insurance marketplaces created under the Affordable Care Act. The webinar, led by CHIR’s Kevin Lucia and Sarah Dash and joined by state and federal officials, examined key state marketplace design decisions, small business perspectives, and the future of the program. Ashley Williams provides this overview.
In March, the Obama administration extended for two additional years a policy allowing states to permit insurers to renew health plans that are not compliant with the Affordable Care Act. In their latest blog post for the Commonwealth Fund, CHIR researchers Kevin Lucia, Sabrina Corlette, and Ashley Williams document states’ decisions on whether or not to allow the extension of non-compliant plans and the implications for 2015 premiums, SHOP enrollment, and consumer protection.
It’s decision time for states considering whether to transition to a state-based, partnership, federally facilitated or other form of health insurance marketplace. In their latest blog post for the Commonwealth Fund, Sarah Dash and Amy Thomas dig into which states are doing what, and why.
Both Minnesota and New York are on the path to setting up a Basic Health Program (BHP) that will provide more affordable coverage for low-income families than they may find on the marketplace. Georgetown University Center for Children and Families’ Sonya Schwartz has an update on where the BHP program stands and what it means for families.
In January, a federal court in Missouri became the first to rule on whether states have the legal authority to restrict the work of the Affordable Care Act’s consumer assistance “navigators.” In a new post for The Commonwealth Fund, Justin Giovannelli, Kevin Lucia, and Sabrina Corlette discuss the decision and explore its significance for Missouri and the other states that have adopted restrictions on navigators and consumer assisters.
States have taken substantially varying actions to implement and enforce the Affordable Care Act’s three major components designed to expand health insurance coverage and protect consumers—health insurance market reforms, health insurance marketplaces, and Medicaid expansion—according to a new report prepared for The Commonwealth Fund. Kevin Lucia summarizes the findings and what states’ varying approaches to implementation means for consumers.
Shopping for and selecting a new health coverage plan can be challenging for many consumers. One government program – Medicare Part D – recently announced a new policy to make the process of selecting a prescription drug plan easier for beneficiaries. Sabrina Corlette compares the Medicare approach to that taken by the health insurance marketplaces – and shares new CHIR research on state actions to simplify consumers’ shopping experiences.
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.
