Affordable Care Act

With a questionable outlook for 2020 passage of legislation on prescription drug pricing and surprise medical bills, Drew Altman says the real action to watch in health policy is likely to be in the states.

In an Axios column, Drew Altman explains that the elimination of the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate penalty has had little impact on how the ACA’s insurance markets are working, showing that “the marketplaces continue to function, even when ‘severed’ from the mandate penalty,” and undercutting a central argument in the lawsuit seeking to strike down the entire law.

Medicaid, the provider of health insurance coverage for about one in five Americans and the largest payer for long-term care services in the community and nursing homes, continues to be a key part of health policy debates at the federal and state level. Key Medicaid issues to watch in 2020 include: Medicaid expansion developments; Section 1115 waiver activity; enrollment and spending trends; benefits, payment and delivery system reforms, and the implications of the 2020 elections.

This month’s KFF Health Tracking poll examines public opinion and knowledge of Medicare-for-all and a public option, President Trump’s approval on health care programs and issues, the public’s priorities for Congress, and public opinion on the Affordable Care Act and the Texas v. U.S. court case.

Lowering Drug Costs and Maintaining Pre-existing Condition Protections Top Public’s Health Priorities for Congress With the first votes of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary season approaching, large majorities of Democrats – and most of the public overall – support both of the major approaches primary candidates have put forward to…

Test your knowledge about health facts, policy issues and proposals that are emerging among the 2020 presidential candidates. The 10 questions focus on health issues in the 2020 election, including: health care costs, prescription drug prices, the Affordable Care Act and changes in health insurance coverage, reproductive health, and Medicare-for-all and public option proposals.

This Health Affairs article reviews 102 nationally representative public opinion polls in the period 2010–19 and finds public opinion has shifted in a sustained way at only two points in time: in a negative direction following technical problems in the first enrollment period, and in a positive direction after President Donald Trump’s election and subsequent Republican repeal efforts.

Just 4 states are home to 70% of the uninsured adults who would become newly eligible for Medicaid if the 14 remaining states expanded under the Affordable Care Act. Learn more in this Chart of the Week.

The April 2019 KFF Health Tracking Poll examines the public’s position on the future of ACA and its protections for people with pre-existing medical conditions, in light of the ongoing legal battle which may end up in the Supreme Court. With lawmakers proposing legislation to address surprise medical bills, this month’s survey also measures the public’s support for federal government action to protect patients from having to pay the cost incurred from an inadvertent out-of-network provider.

The Utah legislature significantly changed and limited the Medicaid coverage expansion that was adopted by the voters through a ballot initiative in November 2018. This issue brief explains new provisions in Utah’s recently amended Section 1115 Medicaid waiver and the additional amendments that the state has submitted to CMS, including most recently a request for enhanced ACA federal matching funds for an expansion to 138% FPL with an enrollment cap.