Happy New Year! The holiday season may be over, but health policy researchers continue to bestow gifts onto our field. In December, we read about disruptions in health insurance coverage, the uninsured population, and gaps in provider network oversight. This roundup will highlight key findings of these articles, as well as their significance for our work.
Despite a significant reduction in the uninsured rate over the last decade, millions of people still lack coverage, and many people who have insurance are unable to access care because of high cost sharing. In a new post for the Commonwealth Fund’s To the Point blog, CHIR’s Rachel Schwab, Justin Giovannelli, and Kevin Lucia look at California’s recently adopted strategies to reduce and prevent uninsurance and lower cost barriers to care for marketplace enrollees.
In our newest monthly roundup of health policy research, CHIR intern Madison Berry reviews studies evaluating the impact of extending the American Rescue Plan’s subsidy expansion, COVID-19’s effect on health spending, and the importance of continuous marketplace coverage for pregnant people.
The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced new challenges for Navigators. To learn more about their experience, and how they are helping consumers manage often unexpected transitions in coverage, CHIR’s Olivia Hoppe talked with six navigators across five states using the FFM to hear how they were faring.
As the coronavirus pandemic and economic shutdown continue, the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance marketplaces are an important tool in covering the uninsured. In a new post for the Commonwealth Fund’s To the Point blog, CHIR experts Rachel Schwab, Justin Giovannelli and Kevin Lucia explore how state-based marketplaces have worked to enroll the uninsured during the COVID-19 crisis by creating new opportunities to sign up for coverage and launching outreach campaigns.
The novel coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, has been the cause of confusion and anxiety for individuals and families across the country, especially when it comes to health care. We’ve pulled together some frequently asked questions, and added new COVID-19-specific inquiries, from our Navigator Resource Guide to help guide Navigators, brokers, assisters, and consumers through this complex and trying time.
This month, CHIR’s Olivia Hoppe reviews studies about the relationship between insurance and mortality ahead, insurance rates between men and women, and the effect of silver-loading on rural premiums.
For the January Research Round Up, CHIR’s Olivia Hoppe goes over new research that examines the root of high health care spending in the US, the effects of eliminating the individual mandate penalty in California, insurer participation in the individual market, and characteristics of the uninsured population across the country.
Health policy researchers are keeping busy, assessing the impact of recent and potential state and federal actions. CHIR’s Olivia Hoppe digs into new research on how interruptions in insurance coverage impact chronic disease management, the debate over the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) employer mandate, the innovative ways that California is keeping its risk pool healthy, characteristics of the uninsured in the U.S., and the coverage and premium effects of state-based individual mandates.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced on July 10, 2018 that they would fund up to $10 million for Navigator programs in the 34 federally facilitated marketplace states in 2018, an over 80 percent cut from the program’s original funding. CMS is also encouraging applicants to educate consumers about plans that don’t meet Affordable Care Act standards. CHIR’s Olivia Hoppe explains the effects these changes could have on consumers and the market.
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.
