Next year’s premiums for individual market plans will be way down in New York thanks to the Affordable Care Act. Christine Monahan discusses how a competitive exchange and the individual mandate will provide relief to cash-strapped New Yorkers.
One of the key goals of the Affordable Care Act is to make health insurance coverage more affordable and consumer-friendly by managing competition among health insurers through the creation of health insurance exchanges. A new report from researchers at the Urban Institute and CHIR released by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation explores state actions to encourage or require participation on exchanges, and early indications of the level of competition among health insurers. Kevin Lucia highlights some of the findings from the report.
It was another hot summer Friday for regulations with the release of the final rule on navigator and non-navigator assisters (aka in-person assisters) and Exchange-based certified application counselors (CACs). Our colleague with Georgetown’s Center for Children and Families, Tricia Brooks, dives in on what the rules mean for consumers.
Last week HHS issued another round of Frequently Asked Questions, addressing the Basic Health Program, and a Request for Comment on agent/broker data collection. Sabrina Corlette takes a look at both.
Entrepreneurs with dreams of venturing out to start their own business must now navigate a “wild west” of inadequate and unaffordable insurance options. But the Affordable Care Act’s reforms will change that for entrepreneurs like Joe and Virginia Murphy. JoAnn Volk tells their story.
In a new report for The Commonwealth Fund, Sarah Dash, Kevin Lucia, Katie Keith, and Christine Monahan provide a comprehensive look at the critical design decisions made by 17 states and the District of Columbia that chose to establish a state-based exchange for 2014. Sarah Dash has highlights from the report and discusses what the findings mean for stakeholders.
In comments to federal regulators on recent proposed rules, the NAIC added its voice to the chorus of stakeholders who have weighed in on some of the Affordable Care Act’s most significant protections. Katie Keith has highlights from the NAIC's four comment letters on the 2014 market reforms, essential health benefits, multi-state plans, and the rate review template.
In our most recent issue brief for the Commonwealth Fund, CHIR researchers studied the progress states have made to date in implementing the 2014 market reforms and found that most states have yet to move forward with changes they need. Katie Keith discusses the actions that states have taken so far and what our findings mean for federal and state regulators as they implement the Affordable Care Act.
The Office of Personnel Management recently issued a final rule on the multi-state plan program in which it attempts to standardize contracting processes and state rules to, in theory, make it easier for insurers to enter new markets while limiting the extent to which multi-state plan issuers can bypass state consumer protections and preserving a level playing field in exchanges. Christine Monahan discusses how OPM has attempted to balance these competing pressures and discusses where multi-state plans may or may not have flexibility.
Last week CMS released a set of instructions to insurance companies seeking to sell plans in the federally facilitated exchanges. Sabrina Corlette took a look at some of the details and provides some of the plan management highlights.
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.
