The Affordable Care Act envisions that the new health insurance marketplaces will encourage plans to provide better quality, more cost-effective care. But achieving that is easier said than done. A recent report by CHIR faculty Sarah Dash and Sabrina Corlette charts action by the state-based marketplaces to achieve quality improvements and assesses future prospects. Ashley Williams provides an overview.
We’re about 110 days away from open enrollment into coverage for 2015. In recent guidance, CMS has revealed its plans for plan renewals and eligibility re-determinations for people enrolled in plans through the marketplaces. Our Georgetown colleague Tricia Brooks takes a look at the envisioned process and some of the benefits – and pitfalls – for consumers.
On July 16 the Obama Administration published guidance for insurers in the federally facilitated marketplaces (FFMs) regarding a requirement that they provide a 90-day grace period to policyholders who fail to pay premiums. Sabrina Corlette reviews the new rules and offers some advice for consumers who might find themselves in this situation.
The ACA includes numerous consumer protections designed to remedy shortcomings in the availability, affordability, adequacy, and transparency of individual market insurance. However, because states continue to be the primary regulators of health insurance and implementers of these requirements, consumers are likely to experience some of these new protections differently, depending on where they live. CHIR’s latest issue brief finds that consumers nationwide will enjoy improved protections in each area targeted by the reforms.
In March, the Obama administration extended for two additional years a policy allowing states to permit insurers to renew health plans that are not compliant with the Affordable Care Act. In their latest blog post for the Commonwealth Fund, CHIR researchers Kevin Lucia, Sabrina Corlette, and Ashley Williams document states’ decisions on whether or not to allow the extension of non-compliant plans and the implications for 2015 premiums, SHOP enrollment, and consumer protection.
It’s decision time for states considering whether to transition to a state-based, partnership, federally facilitated or other form of health insurance marketplace. In their latest blog post for the Commonwealth Fund, Sarah Dash and Amy Thomas dig into which states are doing what, and why.
Remember the Medicaid loopers? These are people who applied for coverage through the health insurance Marketplace, to be told they were initially assessed as Medicaid eligible, and to apply for coverage with their state’s Medicaid agency. If the Medicaid agency rejected their application, they were then bounced back to the Marketplace. In this blog post, Sabrina Corlette takes a look at one family’s efforts to get through a maze of bureaucracy to obtain coverage for their children.
How does COBRA fit into coverage options now that people who lose employer-sponsored coverage have other insurance options under the ACA? In this blog post, JoAnn Volk takes up that question and looks at what an offer of COBRA means for special enrollment periods under the ACA.
With the close of open enrollment in the new health insurance Marketplaces, it is a good time not only to applaud the work of the navigators and consumer assisters who helped people gain access to new coverage, but also to reflect on lessons learned and assess what can be done to improve consumer assistance for 2015. Our colleague at Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families, Tricia Brooks, does just that in her latest post.
The Obama Administration is allowing extra time to enroll in the health insurance Marketplaces for people who, through no fault of their own, have been unable to complete the process. But the options are different, depending on people’s different circumstances. Our Georgetown University Center for Children and Families colleague Tricia Brooks explains.
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.
