Premiums

Insurer financial data through the first quarter of 2017 suggest the individual market has been stabilizing and insurers in this market are regaining profitability, finds a new analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation. The analysis tracks insurer financial performance, starting before the launch of Affordable Care Act marketplaces, through two indicators:…

This brief examines recently-released annual financial data from 2017 and finds insurers selling individual market plans had their best financially since 2014, when new ACA insurance market rules took effect that guaranteed access to coverage for people with pre-existing conditions. At the same time, recent political and policy changes, including the repeal of the individual mandate penalty as part of tax reform legislation and proposed regulations to expand loosely-regulated short-term insurance plans, cloud plans’ outlook going forward.

Insurers in 2017 had their best financial year selling individual market health insurance since the Affordable Care Act began requiring guaranteed access to coverage for people with pre-existing conditions in 2014, though recent political and policy changes create new challenges for insurers trying to succeed in this market, new Kaiser…

Short-term health insurance plans are able to charge premiums 54 percent lower than ACA-compliant plans, by excluding pre-existing conditions and severely limiting benefits.

Short-term health insurance plans offer a trade-off for consumers: substantially lower premiums than plans that comply with the Affordable Care Act, but much less protection if they get sick and need care. Just how much cheaper are the premiums and what are consumers giving up to get them? A new…

KFF’s Karen Pollitz testimony before the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means on Jan. 29, 2019 examines the prevalence of pre-existing conditions, the impact of the Affordable Care Act’s prohibition against medical underwriting and other provisions aimed at stabilizing the insurance risk pool, and the trade-offs involved in relaxing those provisions. 

In this Axios column, Drew Altman shows that employer coverage for lower wage workers is much worse than ACA marketplace coverage for similar populations. It’s a bigger problem we need to talk about more, he says.

In this Axios column, Drew Altman shows that employer coverage for lower wage workers is much worse than ACA marketplace coverage for similar populations. It’s a bigger problem we need to talk about more, he says.

Overall enrollment in the individual market fell 5% to 13.7 million in the first quarter of 2019 following the repeal of the ACA’s individual mandate penalty.

The House COVID-19 relief proposal would temporarily lower what millions of Marketplace enrollees and uninsured potential enrollees would pay toward premiums and would provide states that have not expanded their Medicaid programs a financial boost that would more than offset their costs initially, two new KFF analyses find. The analyses…