To help make coverage more comprehensive, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires insurers to cover a minimum set of health insurance benefits, known as “essential health benefits.” JoAnn Volk and Max Levin provide an update on how many states have selected their essential health benefits benchmark plan and help translate what it means for consumers.
Thanks to the support of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, CHIRblog will feature profiles of everyday people across the country who will – or have already – benefited from new consumer protections under the Affordable Care Act. Sabrina Corlette tells us about Joshua and his family's struggle to obtain affordable, quality insurance that will cover the care he needs for his heart syndrome in the first personal story in our new series, “Real Stories, Real Reforms.”
As stakeholders wrap up their comments on ACA proposed rules published last month, JoAnn Volk takes another look at where things stand in the market reform and EHB rules.
A new study in the journal Health Affairs finds that the ACA's dependent coverage provision has not only increased coverage for young adults, it's improved their access to health care services. Sabrina Corlette takes a look.
With the deadline looming for comments on the Office of Personnel Management's (OPM) recent proposed rule implementing the Multi-State Plan Program, Christine Monahan poses three key questions stakeholders are thinking about.
Today, the Kaiser Family Foundation—in partnership with CHIR, the American Cancer Society, and the National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable—released a new report exploring how private insurers are applying cost-sharing for colorectal cancer screening, such as colonoscopies. Kevin Lucia, one of the report's authors, discusses what the findings mean for this new benefit under the Affordable Care Act.
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) is moving forward with model state laws to implement the ACA's sweeping insurance reforms. Sabrina Corlette takes a look.
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) held its annual summer meeting in Atlanta from August 11 to August 14. Katie Keith discusses the most interesting things heard at the meeting.
On November 16, state regulators and interested parties held the first public meeting of the NAIC's new Health Care Reform Regulatory Alternatives Working Group, charged with providing a forum for discussing open issues and alternatives to state-based exchanges under the Affordable Care Act. Katie Keith has highlights from this meeting and previews what the group might discuss at the next NAIC national meeting later this month.
States have consistently asked for more guidance from the federal government on health insurance exchanges, and, today, federal regulators delivered (at least partially). Sabrina Corlette discusses the Center for Consumer Information & Insurance Oversight's release of the final Blueprint for Approval of Affordable State-based and State Partnership Insurance Exchanges.
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.
