Insurers have started to propose some pretty eye-popping premium increases for Affordable Care Act coverage in 2019. CHIR expert Sabrina Corlette dug deep into the companies’ actuarial memos to find out what’s causing the price hikes & found that recent changes in federal policy are making a big difference.
In preparation for the day when a progressive vision for health reform may have more supporters in the White House and Congress, a number of leading members of Congress have developed new and innovative proposals. Everyone is trying to answer the same question: How do we get the most people covered in the most affordable way? The Urban Institute might have a good answer. CHIR’s Olivia Hoppe explains.
In a new California Health Care Foundation issue brief, CHIR’s Dania Palanker, Kevin Lucia, JoAnn Volk, and Rachel Schwab interviewed 21 stakeholders—including state officials, brokers and agents, insurers, and experts on California insurance markets to understand California’s short-term insurance market and how proposed federal regulatory changes could change the market. Their research finds that expanding the duration of short-term plans could increase their market and add to the destabilization of the individual health insurance market, including Covered California.
Getting injured in the United States can be quite the financial headache, even with health insurance. CHIR’s Olivia Hoppe went on vacation to Berlin, Germany, and got some answers on the German health insurance experience during her trip.
In CHIRblog’s March installment of What We’re Reading, CHIR’s Olivia Hoppe dives into new research that highlights premium trends from the most recent enrollment period, whether employers will continue offering subsidized coverage to employees, the use of the ACA’s tobacco surcharge in the small-group market, and the early effects of the Trump administration’s health insurance policies on coverage.
Earlier today, California, along with 15 state attorneys general filed a motion to intervene in the latest ACA lawsuit, where governors and attorneys general from 20 other states are alleging that the law is unconstitutional. CHIR’s Emily Curran explains how the lawsuit, if successful, is tantamount to ACA “repeal-without-replacement,” resulting in significant losses in coverage and financial harm.
Researchers from Georgetown CHIR and the Urban Institute have released a new report documenting the findings from a series of interviews with insurers participating in the Affordable Care Act marketplaces. We share a summary of key takeaways here.
New proposed rules from the Trump administration would loosen current federal restrictions on short-term, limited duration insurance products. In their latest brief for the State Health & Value Strategies program, CHIR experts Sabrina Corlette, JoAnn Volk, and Justin Giovannelli summarize the proposed rule and its potential impacts and provide a menu of options for states seeking to protect consumers and stabilized their individual markets.
The Trump administration issued proposed rules on February 20, 2018 that rescind Obama-era restrictions on short-term, limited duration insurance products. This action, if finalized, would leave regulation of short-term health plans almost entirely to states. In their latest post for The Commonwealth Fund’s To the Point blog, CHIR experts Dania Palanker, Kevin Lucia, Sabrina Corlette and Maanasa Kona review current short-term plan standards in a sampling of 10 diverse states.
Last week Blue Cross of Idaho filed the first “state-based” health plans, products that don’t comply with the Affordable Care Act’s requirements for coverage offered on the individual market. When a state can’t or won’t enforce federal law, the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) is supposed to step in. CHIR’s Rachel Schwab outlines HHS’ authority to protect the rule of law and ensure that Idaho consumers continue to receive the benefits they are promised under the ACA.
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.
