Medical debt is one of the leading causes of bankruptcy in the United States. Though federal law provides some protection against medical debt and its downstream consequences, the federal framework has significant gaps. In a new report for the Commonwealth Fund, CHIR’s Maanasa Kona and Vrudhi Raimugia examine how states are filling gaps in federal law.
A recently proposed federal rule aims to mitigate the harm of short-term insurance plans, products exempt from the Affordable Care Act’s consumer protections. In a post for the Commonwealth Fund, Justin Giovannelli, Kevin Lucia, and Christina L. Goe explain the proposed federal rule and describe what else states can do to further protect their residents.
Washington, Colorado, and Nevada are partnering with private health insurance carriers to offer new “public option” plans. In a post for the Commonwealth Fund’s To the Point blog, CHIR’s Christine Monahan and Madeline O’Brien compare state approaches to selecting insurance carriers to offer the new state plans.
The federal government has taken a series of actions to strengthen the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and Medicaid, and the Biden administration has announced its intent to do more in this arena. Stakeholders have aided federal policy efforts by suggesting administrative options for increasing access to affordable, comprehensive health insurance and promoting health equity. In her latest post for the Commonwealth Fund’s To the Point blog, Georgetown’s Katie Keith identifies thirteen high-priority administrative policies to strengthen the ACA and Medicaid and evaluates their current status.
The American Rescue Plan temporarily increases the availability and generosity of federal premium assistance for people who obtain coverage through the ACA marketplaces. Were Congress to make these premium subsidy enhancements permanent, states would have more breathing space to address other barriers to care, potentially with support from an ACA Section 1332 waiver. In a new work for The Commonwealth Fund, Justin Giovannelli examines how a permanent boost to federal subsidies could give states new and different opportunities to help their residents using the ACA’s waiver program.
The family glitch bars millions of people from accessing reduced premiums and cost-sharing through the marketplaces because a family member has an offer of employer coverage. In their latest post for the Commonwealth Fund To the Point blog, Christina Goe and CHIR’s Dania Palanker delve into the costs of the family glitch to low- and middle-income families.
We at Georgetown CHIR look back at this tumultuous, tragic, and eventful year and are thankful we have the opportunity to do the work we do. When the world went on lock down in early March, our team quickly pivoted to researching and writing about the government response to COVID-19 and its impact on health care coverage. We also wrote about surprise balance billing, junk insurance, and trends in provider-payer dynamics We share some of the highlights from our work here.
The ACA expanded women’s access to comprehensive coverage. The Trump administration is seeking to overturn the law while promoting coverage options that are exempt from the ACA’s consumer protections, including short-term plans and health care sharing ministries. In a new post for The Commonwealth Fund, CHIR experts examine the differences between ACA plans and the alternatives promoted by the Trump administration, finding that these products frequently exclude or severely limit coverage of services that are critical to women’s health.
The individual health insurance markets of most states are stable but face ongoing challenges. In a new work for The Commonwealth Fund, Justin Giovannelli, JoAnn Volk, and Kevin Lucia examine state efforts to address the affordability of comprehensive individual market coverage.
This year has seen a flurry of state-level action to protect patients from surprise balance billing. In their latest post for the Commonwealth Fund’s To the Point blog, CHIR’s Jack Hoadley, Kevin Lucia and Maanasa Kona take a closer look at the latest set of state bills to tackle the issue. They find that lawmakers’ approaches to solving this problem are evolving.
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.
