The COBRA Subsidy and Health Insurance for the Unemployed April 16, 2010 Issue Brief With the nation’s unemployment rate rising to its highest levels in decades as a result of the recession, many families have lost their employer-sponsored health coverage or are at risk of doing so. In an effort to help people maintain coverage after a layoff, the stimulus legislation known as the…
Building an Information Technology Foundation for Health Reform: A look at Recent Guidance and Funding Opportunities January 1, 2011 Issue Brief The major coverage provisions in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) go into effect in January 2014 with an expansion of Medicaid eligibility to nearly all individuals under 138% of poverty and new subsidies for individuals with incomes between 138% and 400% of poverty to purchase coverage in newly established Health…
The Health Reform Law’s Medicaid Expansion: A Guide to the Supreme Court Arguments March 29, 2012 Issue Brief One significant element of the pending U.S. Supreme Court case challenging the Affordable Care Act is the constitutionality of the law’s Medicaid expansion. This provision of the law requires states that choose to participate in the Medicaid program to cover nearly all adults under age 65 with household incomes at…
The Part D Experience: What are the Lessons for Broader Medicare Reform? May 30, 2012 Event Launched in 2006, Medicare added a prescription drug benefit that relies entirely on private plans, while, for other benefits, beneficiaries have a choice between private health plans and traditional fee-for-service Medicare. As policymakers consider changes to Medicare that would give an even greater role to private health plans in caring…
An Employer Health Benefits Balance Sheet June 17, 2011 Perspective There seems to be growing interest in the question of how many employers will keep offering coverage to their full-time employees once the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is fully implemented in 2014, or instead will choose to stop offering coverage and pay a penalty. While there is some good analysis…
Who Will be the H&R Block and TurboTax for Health Insurance? June 3, 2011 Perspective There’s been quite a bit of focus lately insofar as these issues go, anyway on health insurance agents and brokers (sometimes known in the industry as “producers”). They are pushing legislation that has been introduced in Congress and is now being studied by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners that…
August Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: The Uninsured and the Health Reform Law August 29, 2011 Perspective The August Kaiser Health Tracking Poll finds that even though 32 million uninsured Americans will gain health insurance under the ACA, only about half of non-elderly Americans currently without coverage say they are familiar with the chief components in the law designed to achieve this goal. Fifty-two percent of the uninsured…
The Budget Trigger and Health Reform August 4, 2011 Perspective No doubt it will take some time to sort out how elements of the debt deal (formally “The Budget Control Act of 2011”) will all work. Delving into the details of how it affects subsidies in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to make insurance more affordable helps to illustrate how…
Average Individual Mandate Penalty to Rise 47 Percent to $969 in 2016 for Uninsured People Eligible for ACA Plans December 9, 2015 News Release 3.5 Million Could Have a Zero-Dollar Premium Contribution or Pay Less for Health Insurance than Penalty Due to Premium Subsidies; 7.1 Million Would Pay More to Get Coverage A new analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation finds that among uninsured people who are eligible for an Affordable Care Act marketplace plan,…
New Analysis Finds Marketplace Plans with Lowest Premiums Are Often Not the Most Cost-Effective Option for People with HIV January 28, 2016 News Release Among 300 Enrollment Options Examined, an HIV Positive Enrollee Could Save $4,000 on Average by Assessing a Fuller Range of Costs A new Kaiser Family Foundation analysis finds that people living with HIV could benefit from looking beyond premium costs when shopping for a health plan in the marketplace –…