New Report Evaluates States’ Strategies to Stabilize Health Insurance Premiums and Build Sustainable Exchanges

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The Affordable Care Act includes a range of health insurance reforms that will lead to health care costs being shared more evenly between the healthy and the sick. Some experts have pointed to concerns that in the short term, there will be premium “rate shock” for some individuals, while in the long term, exchanges will be vulnerable to adverse selection if they attract a disproportionate number of older, sicker enrollees. Under the ACA, states have considerable flexibility to implement additional strategies to manage their markets and protect consumers. In collaboration with researchers at the Urban Institute, CHIR faculty members Sabrina Corlette and Sarah Dash examine states’ strategies to make premiums more affordable and protect the exchanges from potential adverse selection.

Cancellation of Policies in the Individual Market: Apology Accepted, Mr. President – No Further Action Required

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Last Thursday, the President apologized to those individuals currently covered under an individual policy and who will need to transition to a new policy that complies with the 2014 requirements under the Affordable Care Act. In his latest blog, David Cusano notes that this result was a necessary and predictable one, and encourages Americans to accept the President’s apology and move forward by promoting and implementing the protections under the ACA.

Beware a Rush to Judgment Based on Early Enrollment Numbers

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The Obama Administration will soon release the first month enrollment figures for the new health insurance marketplaces. To put these early numbers in perspective, our Georgetown University Health Policy Institute colleague Jack Hoadley reflects on the Medicare Part D experience.

Small Business and the ACA: Survey Debunks Opponents’ Claims

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Many ACA opponents claim that the ACA will be a “job killer” and cause employers to drop coverage or cut employees’ hours. A recent survey of small businesses commissioned by the National Federation of Independent Business contains strong evidence that those claims are overblown. Sabrina Corlette takes a look at their findings.

Helping Consumers Understand their Coverage Options, from Coast to Coast

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A massive consumer outreach and education effort is underway to help consumers understand their new coverage options under the Affordable Care Act. But obstacles remain, particularly in states with federally facilitated marketplaces. In the second of a two-part series of blogs for the Commonwealth Fund, CHIR faculty members Sarah Dash, Kevin Lucia, and Justin Giovannelli examined the range of outreach efforts across the states.

What CHIP Implementation Can Teach Us

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The early problems with the ACA’s health insurance marketplaces are frustrating. But if history is any guide, they will be temporary – and we can learn from them. Gene Lewit, a CHIP expert who lived through that law’s roll out in the 1990s, blogs about his new report, which finds that enrollment in new major health insurance expansions will be slow at first and expose problems that even the most careful planning might not have anticipated.

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.