Private Health Insurance

Yesterday, in response to concerns about insurers pulling out of the ACA marketplaces and raising premiums, the federal government published proposed rules to stabilize the individual and small group health insurance markets.

In a press release, Dr. Patrick Conway, Acting Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services acknowledged the changes are short term relief “while future reforms are being debated.” 

Depending on how the Supreme Court rules in King v. Burwell this summer, eight million residents of states now using the healthcare.gov exchange may lose federal insurance subsidies unless their state creates its own exchange. Some existing state exchanges have struggled with implementation over the last year. Others have been more successful.

During a CSG-East webinar on May 20th, Peter VanLoon, from Connecticut’s health insurance exchange, will describe how Access Health CT avoided most problems. Building on its success, Access Health CT is offering technical assistance and business services to states wishing to create or enhance their state-based exchange.

California voters will have an opportunity on the November 2014 ballot to approve Proposition 45 requiring that the state insurance commissioner approve proposed increases in health insurance rates. The campaign for the proposition is led by Consumer Watchdog, a group that has taken on the automobile and home insurance industries previously.

In 35 other states,...

The Associated Press is reporting today that the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia will have all its full panel of judges re-hear the challenge to granting subsidies for health insurance purchase in the states that have not implemented state-based health insurance exchanges.

The initial ruling had come from a three-judge panel and called...

What do the Supreme Court cases where corporations challenge the Affordable Care Act's birth control mandate on religious grounds have to do with state government?  Nothing, at least on the surface.  But if you dig a little deeper the outcome of this case could affect state and local land use decisions.  That is why the State and Local Legal Center filed an amicus brief in this case. 

The federal government on Tuesday approved the Iowa plan to provide new private health insurance plus other plans from the state’s online health insurance marketplace to cover residents newly eligible for Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act option. However, according to AP reports, federal officials stopped short of approving the flexibility the Gov. Haslam requested to charge premiums. The legislature and Gov. Haslam negotiated the plan during the 2013 session.

The state’s proposal provides those with incomes up to 100 percent of poverty a state-run health plan similar to that of state employees. Those between 100 and 138 percent of poverty would get private plans sold through the marketplace and paid for with federal (and later some state) Medicaid funds.