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This month’s Visualizing Health Policy infographic shows 3 scenarios that illustrate the cost of health insurance under the Affordable Care Act for families in different circumstances, both before and after premium subsidies (in the form of a tax credit).
In health insurance systems designed to protect people with pre-existing conditions and guarantee availability of coverage regardless of health status, countervailing measures are also needed to ensure people do not wait until they are sick to sign up for coverage (as doing so would drive up average costs for other enrollees). The Affordable Care Act (ACA) included a variety of “carrots” (e.g., premium tax credits and cost-sharing reductions) and “sticks” (e.g., the individual mandate penalty…
For the two years since the law's passage, and during the debate leading up to it, the individual mandate has been one of the most controversial aspects of the law. As the lawyers, policy makers, ACA opponents and supporters focus intently on the Supreme Court hearings, this Data Note looks at what the general public thinks of the mandate, explores the reasons why favorability ratings have been so low, and suggests that while opinion on…
The YouToons help consumers understand health insurance by explaining health insurance premiums, out-of-pocket costs, and provider networks. These three videos are excerpts from the 2014 YouToons video, Health Insurance Explained – The YouToons Have It Covered.
This analysis provides estimates of the share of uninsured people eligible to enroll in the Affordable Care Act marketplaces who will be subject to the individual mandate penalty, and how those penalties are increasing for 2016. It also provides estimates of the number of people who could have a zero-dollar contribution or pay less for health insurance than the penalty, due to premium subsidies, and the number of people who would pay more for a…
New data from 2019 suggest that insurers in the individual market remain profitable, even with average premiums falling for the first time since the ACA was implemented. These data indicate that the individual market appears to be stable in 2019, despite the repeal of the individual mandate penalty and the proliferation of loosely-regulated short-term insurance plans.
As Republicans in Congress continue efforts to pass tax reform, the November Kaiser Health Tracking Poll examines views of the plans and how they relate to health care issues. Overall, reforming the tax code is seen as a “top priority” for President Trump and Congress by about three in ten (28 percent), falling well-behind several health care issues such as reauthorizing funding for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) (62 percent) and stabilizing the…
In this Axios column, Drew Altman discusses how public opinion seems to flip on eliminating the individual mandate as part of the tax legislation, from for it to against, when the public considers the consequences.
Ahead of the Midterms, Voters across Parties See Costs as their Top Health Care Concern At a time when the Trump Administration is encouraging state efforts to revamp their Medicaid programs through waivers, the latest Kaiser Family Foundation tracking poll finds the public splits on whether the reason behind proposals to impose work requirements on some low-income Medicaid beneficiaries is to lift people out of poverty or to reduce spending. The Centers for Medicare and…
Most of the Public Initially Favors Getting Rid of the ACA’s Individual Mandate As Part of Tax Reform, But Some Become Opponents When Presented with Facts and Arguments for Keeping the Mandate As the House prepares to vote Thursday on its tax reform bill, a new Kaiser Family Foundation poll finds almost three in 10 Americans (28%) view tax reform as a top priority for President Trump and Congress. That’s significantly fewer than the share…
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