Of the many consumer protection tools available to health insurance regulators, one of the most powerful is the ability to review premium rates. Yet, some states have made recent decisions to abdicate this authority to federal regulators. Sally McCarty discusses recently enacted legislation in Florida that suspends the state’s rate review requirements – and what it means for insurers, regulators, and consumers.
Employers are increasingly turning to workplace wellness programs with an eye toward improving employee health and lowering their health care costs. In this post, JoAnn Volk takes a look at the final federal rule governing workplace wellness programs and what it means for consumers.
Rhode Island’s insurance regulators are using their rate review authority in innovative ways to make premiums more affordable for consumers – and tackle some of the underlying drivers of health care cost increases. Sabrina Corlette takes a look at Rhode Island’s most recent action to push the rate review envelope.
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) continues its work to support states’ implementation of the ACA. One work group is taking on the daunting task of updating dozens of model state health insurance laws to reflect the ACA’s new consumer protections. Sabrina Corlette joined their most recent call and provides an overview of their progress.
Last week marked the thirty-seventh time that the House has voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Sally McCarty reflects on how that news may have been received by the millions of people who are already benefiting from the law’s early market reforms and, in particular, those formerly plagued by lifetime limits on their health insurance.
An interesting thing happened in Oregon last week after the Division of Insurance publicly posted insurers’ proposed premium rates for 2014. After seeing their competitors’ prices, two insurers asked the Division to allow them to reduce their proposed rates. Sabrina Corlette examines these recent developments and their implications for consumers.
With much of the country still reeling from the Boston marathon bombings, many of the victims, as well as their families and friends, have already begun the long road to recovery. With estimates that total medical costs could be as high as $9 million, Katie Keith considers some of the costs and challenges that the victims might face in obtaining the care they need.
With open enrollment for the new health insurance marketplaces just around the corner, attention is turning to the critical need for assistance to help consumers understand their new health insurance choices. The Kaiser Family and Robert Wood Johnson Foundations co-hosted a panel discussion on the topic, and Allison Johnson was there.
With the final rules on essential health benefits and market reforms now released, stakeholders have turned to how coverage will work for consumers. Our colleagues at the Center for Children and Families take a look at how one important set of benefits—dental care—will work for kids next year. Joe Touschner has more on some of the most important issues to watch regarding dental coverage for children.
On March 15, 2013, federal regulators released guidance on how the Affordable Care Act’s new market reforms will be enforced. In a post that originally appeared on The Commonwealth Fund Blog, Katie Keith and Kevin Lucia describe how the new guidance fits into the Affordable Care Act’s enforcement framework and what the new guidance means for enforcement of the law’s most significant reforms.
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.
