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  • KFF Survey Finds that a Majority of Individuals Who Buy Their Own Insurance Report Facing a Premium Increase

    Perspective

    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 non-group coverage report facing a premium increase with a current or previous insurer. Most say they paid the increase, but 16 percent of all policyholders…

  • Quick Take: Essential Health Benefits: What Have States Decided for Their Benchmark?

    Fact Sheet

    Beginning on January 1, 2014, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires that all non-grandfathered individual and small group health insurance plans sold in a state, including those offered through an Exchange, cover certain essential health benefits (EHBs). As it stands today, many plans offered in the individual and small group markets lack access to key benefits; the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) estimates that 62% of health plan enrollees in the individual market…

  • Association Health Plans for Small Groups and Self-Employed Individuals under the Better Care Reconciliation Act

    Issue Brief

    A provision in the Senate Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA), a bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA), would establish association health plan options for small employers and self-employed individuals. For these plans, the requirement that premiums cannot vary based on health status would not apply. This brief describes how association health plans could affect premiums in the small group and non-group markets.

  • Who Will be the H&R Block and TurboTax for Health Insurance?

    Perspective

    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 would exempt agent and broker commissions for health insurance from minimum medical loss ratio (MLR) thresholds established in the health reform law. (The MLR is…

  • Health Insurance Market Reforms: Portability

    Fact Sheet

    Most Americans have access to health insurance through an employer-sponsored health plan, a fact that has made changing or losing a job a complex issue for the purposes of maintaining health insurance. Moving to a new job can be hard if the employer does not offer health insurance, or if the new employer’s health plan is not as generous as the previous employer’s plan. And with limited protections for people with pre-existing conditions, many people…

  • Health Insurance Market Reforms: Rate Restrictions

    Fact Sheet

    Rate restrictions limit how much insurance companies can vary premiums charged to individuals and businesses based on factors such as health status, age, tobacco use and gender. Currently, federal law does not place any limits on the ways that insurance companies set their premium rates. However, beginning January 1, 2014, insurance companies must meet the Affordable Care Act's minimum premium rating rules for health plans for individuals and small businesses. This brief explains the current…

  • Health Insurance Market Reforms: Pre-Existing Condition Exclusions

    Fact Sheet

    Insurers pursue multiple strategies to reduce the cost of covering enrollees with pre-existing conditions, or medical conditions and health problems that existed before the individual enrolled in a health plan. One strategy, the pre-existing condition exclusion, allows insurers to refuse to cover any costs associated with care for a pre-existing condition permanently or over a period of time. Beginning January 1, 2014, insurers in the individual and group markets will be prohibited from imposing pre-existing…

  • How Competitive Are State Health Insurance Markets?

    Issue Brief

    Beginning in 2014, state-based health insurance exchanges will be created to facilitate coverage and choice, with the hope that enhanced competition among insurers will help to moderate premiums for individuals and small groups. This analysis by the Foundation assesses the competitiveness of state insurance markets for individuals and small businesses to establish a baseline as implementation of the health reform law proceeds and to provide context for the policy decisions states will be considering. The…