Understanding Short-Term Limited Duration Health Insurance April 23, 2018 Issue Brief In late 2017, President Trump issued an executive order directing the Secretary of Health and Human Services to take steps to expand the availability of short-term health insurance policies. This brief provides background information on short-term policies and how they differ from ACA-compliant health plans. It also analyzes the short-term plans available through two major online brokers to assess how often they include coverage for mental health, substance abuse, prescription drugs and maternity care.
Yes, the Trump administration promotes consumer choice — for healthy people May 1, 2018 Perspective In this Washington Post op-ed column, Karen Pollitz examines how the Trump Administration’s efforts to promote coverage through short-term health insurance policies, rather than Affordable Care Act coverage, creates trade offs for consumers.
Analysis: Most Short-Term Health Plans Don’t Cover Drug Treatment or Prescription Drugs, and None Cover Maternity Care April 23, 2018 News Release A new Kaiser Family Foundation analysis of short-term, limited duration health plans for sale through two major national online brokers finds big gaps in the benefits they offer. Through an executive order and proposed new regulations, the Trump Administration is seeking to encourage broader use of short-term, limited duration health…
Brief Examines Efforts to Create Health Plan Options that Don’t Comply with the Affordable Care Act’s Rules April 18, 2018 News Release Though Congress last year failed to repeal key Affordable Care Act requirements for non-group health insurance that people buy themselves, the Trump Administration and some states are promoting other types of plans through regulatory changes that would allow the sale of products that skirt many of the ACA’s requirements. A…
JAMA Forum: The Partisan Divide on Health Care July 27, 2016 Perspective In this post for JAMA, the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Larry Levitt outlines the health care platforms of the Republican and Democratic parties, noting their fundamentally different aims and differing ideas about, among other things, the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare) and Medicare.
High-Risk Pools For Uninsurable Individuals February 22, 2017 Issue Brief 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 challenges of a high-risk pool.
JAMA Forum: What Might an ACA Replacement Plan Look Like? January 24, 2017 Perspective Larry Levitt’s January 2017 post explains the logistics of a “repeal and delay” approach to the Affordable Care Act, and outlines key elements of a proposed replacement plan from Rep. Tom Price, who is President Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services. The post is now available at The JAMA Forum.
JAMA Forum: Those Pesky Lines Around States October 19, 2016 Perspective In this post for The JAMA Forum, the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Larry Levitt discusses the concept of allowing insurers to sell health plans across state lines and how such a proposal could affect people with pre-existing conditions.
Repeal of Obamacare Could Cause the ‘Death Spiral’ Critics Warned About December 12, 2016 Perspective 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.
An Estimated 52 Million Adults Have Pre-Existing Conditions That Would Make Them Uninsurable Pre-Obamacare December 12, 2016 News Release A new Kaiser Family Foundation analysis finds that 52 million adults under 65 – or 27 percent of that population — have pre-existing health conditions that would likely make them uninsurable if they applied for health coverage under medical underwriting practices that existed in most states before insurance regulation changes…