The federal Department of Health and Human Services recently published a proposed regulation that signals some potentially helpful changes to the requirement that health insurers cover a set of essential health benefits. Our colleague at Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families, Joe Touschner, offers this overview.
Last month CHIR released its Navigator Resource Guide, with background and close to 300 frequently asked questions on key health insurance issues. The Guide now has new content to help consumers navigate the renewal process for 2015. Sabrina Corlette shares some of the highlights.
The consumer representatives to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) released a report this week on state approaches to regulating and monitoring the adequacy of health plan provider networks. Sabrina Corlette provides this overview.
November 15th marks the start not only of open enrollment into the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance marketplaces, but also of the NAIC’s Fall National Meeting. And many of the same issues on the mind of health insurance consumers are also priorities for state insurance department officials. Sabrina Corlette will be attending the meeting and has this preview.
Saturday, November 15th marks the start of open enrollment in the ACA’s health insurance marketplaces. Of the 9.9 million that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services projects will enroll into 2015 coverage, over 7 million of them are current enrollees who need to have their coverage renewed. In a new issue brief, our Center for Children and Families colleague, Tricia Brooks, outlines what the renewal and eligibility re-determination process is likely to look like for those in the federally facilitated marketplaces.
With open enrollment into the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance marketplaces just around the corner, one trouble spot continues to be the so-called “family glitch,” in which spouses and dependents of individuals with access to employer-based coverage are ineligible for premium tax credits, even if that employer coverage is unaffordable to them. In her latest blog post, our Center for Children and Families colleague, Tricia Brooks, discusses how the family glitch will soon be even more difficult for families to overcome.
While the Affordable Care Act provided significant start-up funds for the development of the new health insurance marketplaces, by January 1, 2015 all the state-based marketplaces must be self-sustaining. In their latest blog post for the Commonwealth Fund, CHIR experts Sarah Dash, Kevin Lucia, Justin Giovannelli and Sean Miskell provide an update on states’ approaches to marketplace financing and sustainability.
The recent election brings us a new Congress and a new leadership dedicated to repeal of the Affordable Care Act. But instead of pushing for full repeal, the likely new Senate Majority leader has said he would focus on rolling back only the provisions he’s identified as unpopular, such as the individual mandate. Sabrina Corlette takes a look at why he can’t have his cake and eat it too.
Within the next several months, federal officials must decide whether to maintain or modify their “transitional” approach to implementation of the Affordable Care Act’s essential health benefits (EHB) requirements. In a new issue brief for the Commonwealth Fund, CHIR researchers examine how states have exercised their flexibility under the current EHB rules.
This week, CHIR is releasing an online version of the Navigator Resource Guide, with close to 300 searchable FAQs and easy-to-read background information on key health insurance and marketplace issues. Although designed with the needs of Navigators in mind, the Guide is a hands-on, practical resource for anyone who needs to communicate with consumers about the Affordable Care Act.
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.
