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Originally published in The Los Angeles Times, this perspective examines the potential implications for the individual market if key parts of the Affordable Care Act were repealed without a replacement plan.
Excerpt: This annual Employer Health Benefits Survey (EHBS) provides a detailed look at trends in employer-sponsored health coverage, including premiums, employee contributions, cost-sharing provisions, and other relevant information. The 2017 survey finds average family health premiums rose 3 percent, the sixth straight year of relatively modest growth, to reach 18,764 annually on average.
As Republican policymakers consider how to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA), they are likely to face a number of decisions about whether to retain any of the law’s changes to Medicare. Repealing the ACA has potential implications for Medicare spending, beneficiaries, and other stakeholders, according to a new Kaiser Family Foundation brief. A full repeal of the ACA would undo all of the law’s changes to Medicare and would increase Medicare spending,…
This issue brief examines the factors that could affect states’ ability to cope with reductions in federal Medicaid funding of the sort proposed in the House-passed American Health Care Act (AHCA), which would eliminate enhanced federal matching funds for the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion and convert Medicaid to a per capita cap or block grant system of financing.
In a New York Times op-ed, Drew Altman draws on observations from focus groups in rust belt states of people in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces who voted for President-elect Trump and say they may not like their coverage under the ACA but could like Republican replacement plans even less.
This 15th annual 50-state survey provides data on Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) eligibility, enrollment, renewal and cost sharing policies as of January 2017, and identifies changes in these policies in the past year. As discussion of repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), broader changes to Medicaid, and reauthorization of CHIP unfolds, this report documents the role Medicaid and CHIP play for low-income children and families and the evolution of these programs…
The Kaiser Health Policy News Index is designed to help journalists and policymakers better understand which health policy-related news stories Americans are following, and what the public knows about health policy issues covered in the news. This analysis examines the top health policy news stories in 2016.
For more than 35 years, many states operated high-risk pool programs to offer non-group health coverage to uninsurable residents. The federal government also operated a temporary high-risk pool program established under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to provide coverage to people with pre-existing conditions in advance of when broader insurance market changes took effect in 2014. This issue brief reviews the history of these programs to provide context for some of the potential benefits and…
The Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive coverage provision made access to the full range of contraceptive methods available to millions of women with private insurance at no cost. Despite broad public support, this provision has been challenged by religious employers, with two cases reaching the Supreme Court. It is unclear how or whether the new Trump administration and 115th Congress will address the contraceptive coverage requirement, either through administrative action or through efforts to repeal the…
The Medicaid program covers 74 million low-income Americans, including many of the poorest and sickest people in our society. Among those served are pregnant women and children, parents and other adults, poor seniors, and people with disabilities. Given Medicaid’s major coverage role and the complex needs of the populations it covers, data and evidence on access to care and health outcomes in Medicaid are of key interest. Such an assessment is also important to ensure…
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