Tag: premium tax credits

Biden’s Budget Sets Up a Spending Showdown, With ACA Subsidies in the Crosshairs

President Biden released his Fiscal Year 2024 budget earlier this month, outlining the administration’s spending and policy priorities for a number of key programs, including the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplaces. However, with a sharply divided Congress, consumers who rely on Medicaid and the ACA’s Marketplaces are likely in the crosshairs of an upcoming spending showdown. CHIR’s Emma Walsh-Alker examines the potential impact of cutbacks to the ACA’s Marketplace subsidies on low- and moderate-income families.

What’s New for 2023 Marketplace Enrollment?

The annual open enrollment period for Marketplace coverage is right around the corner, running from November 1 through January 15 in most states. There are many new policies impacting the Marketplace in 2023, including an extension of enhanced financial assistance through the Inflation Reduction Act; a federal fix to the “family glitch” that will create more affordable coverage opportunities for families; and tools to make shopping for a Marketplace plan more consumer-friendly. CHIR’s Emma Walsh-Alker summarizes these and other recent policy changes that consumers may encounter this year.

August Research Roundup: What We’re Reading

For the August edition of our monthly research roundup, CHIR said farewell to summer by reviewing the latest health policy research. This month, we summarize studies on how the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) will impact health coverage, global efforts to achieve universal health coverage, and the effects of eliminating nominal marketplace premiums.

Delays Extending The American Rescue Plan’s Health Insurance Subsidies Will Raise Premiums And Reduce Coverage

Congress has spent months debating an extension of enhanced premium tax credits enacted under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. However, as CHIR’s Sabrina Corlette and the Urban Institute’s Jason Levitis discuss in this recent Health Affairs Forefront article, the clock is ticking. Continued delays would likely cause coverage losses and additional costs that wouldn’t be restored even if a subsidy extension is later enacted.

April Research Roundup: What We’re Reading

April brought us a shower of health policy research, including studies on the implications of the American Rescue Plan Act’s (ARP) enhanced premium tax credits (PTCs) expiring for marketplace beneficiaries, how value-based payment models have fared in the commercial health insurance market, and trends in prices that private health plans pay for hospital care across the United States. We took some time away from checking out the cherry blossoms to dig in.

April Research Roundup: What We’re Reading

April’s latest health policy research is provided by CHIR’s Nia Gooding in our monthly roundup. She reviews studies on demographic characteristics of the people who fall into the ACA family glitch, trends in contraceptive use among women enrolled in high-deductible health plans after the passage of the ACA, and state policy considerations given the American Rescue Plan’s premium tax credit expansions.

Opponents of Fixing the Family Glitch Reveal their Fundamental Misunderstanding

The “family glitch,” a loophole in federal rules, bars millions of people from subsidized coverage because they have access to a family member’s employer-sponsored coverage The glitch is easy to fix, through either regulation or legislation. CHIR exposes that a paper released this week claiming a fix is illegal and harmful is based on a faulty presumption.

State-Based Marketplaces Gear Up to Implement the American Rescue Plan

The state-based health insurance marketplaces are taking varied approaches to implementing the enhanced premium tax credits provided under the American Rescue Plan. CHIR’s Sabrina Corlette and Rachel Schwab review these states’ decisions and their impact on when and how consumers will access health plans with more affordable premiums.

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.