Marketplace
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Are you Ready for Open Enrollment? Updated Navigator Resource Guide will Help You Understand Policy Changes
On November 1, the sixth open enrollment period begins for marketplace coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). We at the Georgetown University Center on Health Insurance Reforms will soon re-launch our updated Navigator Resource Guide, made possible by the support of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The Guide provides information on recent policy changes, a list of enrollment…
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Lawsuit Threatens Affordable Care Act Preexisting Condition Protections But Impact Will Depend on Where You Live
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been polarizing, but its provisions designed to help people obtain coverage regardless of health status are consistently popular. Nevertheless, ACA opponents continue to target the law’s pre-existing condition protections. On September 5, a federal district court in Texas will hear arguments in a lawsuit filed by Republican governors and attorneys general in…
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New Georgetown Report: Insurance Brokers’ Perspectives on Changes to Individual Health Insurance
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) ushered in a range of consumer protections designed to make it easier for individuals to obtain affordable, adequate health insurance in the individual market. In many states, however, individual market consumers have faced increasingly limited plan choices, relatively narrow provider networks, and rising unsubsidized premiums. In the past year, policy…
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Bracing for an ACA Enrollment Season Without Navigators: Risks for Consumers and the Market
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced on July 10, 2018 that they would fund up to $10 million for Navigator programs in the 34 federally facilitated marketplace (FFM) states in 2018, a 60 percent cut from 2017 funding levels, and an over 80 percent cut from the program’s original funding. CMS is also encouraging applicants to…
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Coverage That (Doesn’t) Count: How the Short-Term, Limited Duration Rule Could Lead to Underinsurance
Any day now, the Trump administration is expected to publish new rules that will expand access to short-term, limited duration insurance (STLDI). The proposed rule would allow STLDI plans to extend up to almost a full year, along with other changes that enable consumers to purchase STLDI as an alternative to comprehensive insurance products currently sold on the individual…
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New Study Finds Evidence of a “Chilling Effect” in 2016 Marketplace Enrollment
There have been reports in the news of immigrant families decreasing their use of health care services and safety net programs because they fear that their information may be used to identify undocumented family members. A new study in the National Bureau of Economic Research explores this topic. Researchers examine the effects of Secure Communities,…
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Trump Administration Strikes Another Blow to the ACA by Cutting Navigator Funding
In what seems an endless stream of administrative actions to undermine the Affordable Care Act, the Trump administration has cut navigator funding from the 2016 level of $63 million to $37 million in 2017 to a meager $10 million for the upcoming fall (2018) open enrollment period. It also looks like the administration is trying…
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Administration Stops Risk Adjustment Payments to Insurers: Another Act of Sabotage?
On July 7, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced that it would indefinitely delay making “risk adjustment” payments owed to insurers participating in the individual and small group markets. In the short-run, this would result in many insurers not receiving payments they are expecting this year as scheduled. That would adversely affect these…
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Trump Hits Obamacare Again, Nearly Wiping Out Funds For Outreach
Huffington Post By: Jeffrey Young and Jonathan Cohn The Trump administration’s campaign to undermine the Affordable Care Act notched another achievement Tuesday. This time, the agency that runs the health insurance exchanges is slashing funds for organizations that help people to shop for coverage, forcing the groups to make do with about one-fourth of the federal funding…
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The Tax Bill: Bad News for Marketplaces and Medicaid
The tax bill (H.R. 1, The “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act”) that Congress passed this week is about more than cutting taxes for corporations and high-income individuals, although it is definitely about that. It’s also about cutting health coverage for low-income children and families. The bill’s repeal of the tax penalty for not having health…
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ACA Marketplace Sign-Ups Outpacing Last Year, Despite Sabotage
The 2018 open enrollment period for Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace coverage is off to a fast start, with over 600,000 customers selecting plans in the first four days compared to 416,000 during the first five days of last year’s period. We don’t yet know what’s driving the increase and how signups during the open…
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State Oversight in Marketplace Open Enrollment More Important Than Ever
We’re in the midst of open enrollment (OE) for 2018 coverage in the marketplaces, and there’s considerable concern that the many challenges accompanying this OE will result in far fewer people enrolled in coverage. Open enrollment this year will be just half the time of previous open enrollment periods – 6 weeks, beginning November 1st –…
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States Step Up to Protect Consumers in Wake of Cuts to ACA Cost-Sharing Reduction Payments
This post from the Center on Health Insurance Reforms originally appeared on the Commonwealth Fund blog. On October 12, President Trump announced he would discontinue reimbursements to insurance companies for Affordable Care Act (ACA) cost-sharing reduction (CSR) plans offered through the health insurance marketplace. Ending the CSR reimbursements is projected to cost insurers $8 billion…
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Have Questions on Private Health Insurance? Check out Latest Navigator Resource Guide
It’s been a bumpy road for the Affordable Care Act these last few months, but starting November 1, the marketplace is open for enrollment. As the fifth open enrollment season is upon us, we at CHIR have launched our updated and improved Navigator Resource Guide, made possible thanks to a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.…
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It’s Not Time to Give Away Consumer Protections for Cost-Sharing Reduction Reimbursements
A whirlwind of activity following the White House announcement that cost-sharing reduction (CSR) reimbursements would no longer be made has culminated, at least for now, in a bipartisan agreement in the Senate to appropriate the payments for two years. While the legislation negotiated by Senators Alexander and Murray had 24 co-sponsors as of October 19, it is unclear…
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Nationwide Rate of Uninsured Children Reaches Historic Low
Nationwide 95.5 percent of children had health insurance in 2016, up from 95.2 percent the previous year—and up from 92.9 percent in 2013, the year before the ACA was fully implemented. While relatively few children rely on the ACA’s Marketplace for insurance, many gained coverage in Medicaid or CHIP when their parents signed up for…
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New Executive Order: Expanding Access to Short-Term Health Plans Is Bad for Consumers and the Individual Market
On October 12, 2017, President Trump signed a “very major” executive order related to health care that is “going to cover a lot of territory.” The executive order takes steps to roll back a consumer protection related to short-term health plans, in addition to allowing the sale of association health plans that are unregulated by the states and do…
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Trump’s Executive Order: Can Association Health Plans Accomplish What Congress Could Not?
Within days of the failure of the Graham-Cassidy legislation to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA), President Trump announced that he would likely sign an executive order to allow individuals and small employers to purchase health insurance across state lines through associations. Senator Rand Paul (R–Ky.), among others, has pushed the idea that the Trump administration can accomplish by…
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The Medicaid Expansion is Good for Parents AND Good for Children
Parents and children are more likely to have health coverage now than they were before the Affordable Care Act took effect. The Urban Institute released new research that shows the rate of insurance coverage for parents and children increased significantly between June/September 2013 and March 2017. During the time period, the rate of coverage increased…
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Who Are the Uninsured Adults?
Last week we posted a piece about the shrinking pool of uninsured adults, based on a Health Affairs study showing that the rate of adults without insurance dropped from 16 percent to 7 percent in states that took the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion. Hidden at the end of this Health Affairs study, is a…
