By Sean Miskell, Justin Giovannelli, Kevin Lucia and Sabrina Corlette

Over the last few months, state-based health insurance marketplaces have navigated a largely successful second open enrollment period and a mostly uneventful first tax season for marketplace consumers. Yet state-based marketplaces continue to face important decisions, such as determining the size of their operating budgets and how to finance them.

Because marketplaces operate in a dynamic environment, many have been forced to reassess how they support themselves, leading states to pursue both incremental changes to their financing method as well as more fundamental shifts, such as transferring some aspects of marketplace operations to the federal government.

In their latest blog post for the Commonwealth Fund, Sean Miskell, Justin Giovannelli, Kevin Lucia, and Sabrina Corlette discuss what how state-based marketplaces are responding to these moving targets and working to ensure financial sustainability.