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Measuring the Affordability of Employer Health Coverage
A recent draft regulation issued by the Treasury Department describes who is eligible for premium tax credits to help them afford coverage offered through health insurance exchanges beginning in 2014. Tax credits will be available to people with incomes between 100 and 400 percent of the poverty level who are…
Perspective Read MoreThe Budget Trigger and Health Reform
No doubt it will take some time to sort out how elements of the debt deal (formally “The Budget Control Act of 2011”) will all work. Delving into the details of how it affects subsidies in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to make insurance more affordable helps to illustrate how…
Perspective Read MoreMapping Premium Variation in the Individual Market
This analysis examines how premiums for individual health insurance differ around the nation, finding that premiums can vary substantially from state to state. The average per-person premium in 2010 ranged in cost from approximately $136 per month in Alabama to more than $400 per month in Vermont and Massachusetts. The…
Issue Brief Read MoreJuly Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: Public Still Divided on ACA, Few Believe the Law Will Improve Consumer Protections
Overall public opinion on the health reform law remains unchanged this month, with 42 percent of Americans holding a favorable view and 43 percent an unfavorable view. Even though previous Health Tracking polls have consistently shown that consumer protections were one of the least controversial and most widely supported provisions…
Perspective Read MoreWhat is a Mini-Med Plan?
One of the early insurance market changes in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) phases out caps that some insurance plans impose on the annual dollar amount of benefits they will cover. Plans issued or renewed after September 23, 2010 cannot have annual limits of less than $750,000, and the threshold…
Perspective Read MoreHealth Reform and the Art of Federalism
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently announced significant changes to the premiums charged in the Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plan (PCIP), aka the “high risk pool” created by the Affordable Care Act. Premiums will now be up to 40% lower depending on the state (in some states…
Perspective Read MorePeering Into the Black Box of Insurance Rating
Recently, the New York Times reported that private health insurers continue to seek large premium increases despite seeing lower than expected use of medical care and booking record profits. The story highlights a significant problem for health policy: the lack of good, public information about how health insurers manage health…
Perspective Read MoreWho Will be the H&R Block and TurboTax for Health Insurance?
There’s been quite a bit of focus lately insofar as these issues go, anyway on health insurance agents and brokers (sometimes known in the industry as “producers”). They are pushing legislation that has been introduced in Congress and is now being studied by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners that…
Perspective Read MoreFamily Health Premiums Rise 3 Percent to $13,770 in 2010, But Workers’ Share Jumps 14 Percent as Firms Shift Cost Burden
About One In Four Covered Workers Now Face Annual Deductibles Of $1,000 Or More, Including Nearly Half Of Those Employed By Small Businesses WASHINGTON, D.C. — Workers on average are paying nearly $4,000 this year toward the cost of family health coverage – an increase of 14 percent, or $482,…
News Release Read MoreKFF Survey Finds that a Majority of Individuals Who Buy Their Own Insurance Report Facing a Premium Increase
People who buy their own insurance report that their insurers most recently requested premium increases averaging 20 percent, according to a new Kaiser survey examining the experiences and views of people who buy health coverage in the non-group or individual market. Overall roughly three in four people (77 percent) with…
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