Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) contained the provision requiring States to significantly expand Medicaid eligibility. The Supreme Court, however, ruled that states had the option of implementing this provision. Thus, the change in Medicaid eligibility and subsequent enrollment varied significantly across states based largely on whether or not they were an expansion state. A recent…
Health insurance premiums appear will rise modestly or even decline for many Obamacare plans in state Health Insurance Exchanges. A RWJ brief reports: Premium increases will be quite low between 2014 and 2015. In the rating areas we examine in the 17 states plus the District of Columbia, six states will have average premium reductions across the carriers’…
Getting Obamacare subsidies may be too easy or too hard depending on your perspective. From MSN: In May 970,000 people had citizenship data errors in their Obamacare applications. As of August, 450,000 of those cases have been resolved, 210,000 are in progress and 60,000 new documents arrive every day. The 310,000 remaining applicants will receive…
Obamacare mandates that individuals need to buy health insurance or else they will face a financial penalty. This threat, however, is not credible unless there are affordable health insurance options for most Americans. What are states doing to hold down health insurance rates in the ACA’s health insurance exchanges? A RWJF working paper provides some…
Which one is easier to use? The answer to this is clear: Amazon. Of course, health insurance is a much more difficult product for people to understand than most good at Amazon. However, many policymakers may have underestimated the amount of customer service new enrollees in Healthcare.gov need. The Washington Post reports: Just 13 percent of assistance…
Most people think that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has focused on decreasing uninsurance rates by creating health insurance exchanges, providing subsidies for health insurance premiums for these exchanges, and expanding Medicaid. The ACA also has affected a number of other segments of the health care industry. Less well known is that the ACA also affected…
Expanding health insurance causes moral hazard. Patients who bear a lower share of cost will inevitably use more health care serices. On the one hand, this increases the cost of the health care system; on the other hand, the patients who receive the additional care likely have better health outcomes. However, which services will patients who are newly…
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) recently ruled that family owned and other closely held companies can opt out of the Affordable Care Act’s provisions for no-cost prescription contraception in most health insurance if they have religious objections. Is this a blow to Obamacare? Yes and No. The practical implications may be small but…
Marketplace Money reports that a PwC study finds that Obamacare plans are actually lower cost than comparable plans outside the Health Insurance Exchanges. “That’s one of the misperceptions out there. That somehow they are barebones or you are not really getting adequate medical insurance,” she says. Connolly says even when you factor in all the…
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) contains a provision, known as the individual mandate, which requires all individuals to have health insurance. Like most rules, however, there are loopholes. The most recent loopholes, however, were enacted by the Obama administration due to the problems with the Healthcare.gov website. Robert Laszewski explains: If you had a health…