President Trump’s decisions on cost-sharing subsidies have contributed to the law’s rising premiums and the resulting rise in subsidies. But he’s not responsible for all of this. Competition, for example, took a big hit last year — when President Obama was still in charge.
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The Alexander-Murray compromise is a good first attempt at bipartisanship, but it is flawed. Democrats want to fund the cost-sharing reduction subsidies through 2019. If this plan is agreed to, Democrats will have no incentive to continue negotiating until after the 2018 midterms and the GOP would lose its opportunity to make more progress on health care.
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The Trump executive order calls for broadening the definition of a “bona fide group or association” to allow a greater number of small employers that are members of local chambers of commerce or a national trade association to form fully insured “large group” or self-insured “group” association health plans.Association health plans are by definition required to provide adequate coverage, and additional federal protections apply, including fiduciary responsibilities, a rigorous appeals process, and prohibitions against basing premium rates on an individual participant’s health condition.
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Anthem’s membership in the Affordable Care Act marketplaces will decline by 70% in 2018, executives told investors Wednesday on the insurer’s third-quarter earnings call. About 1.4 million people had ACA-compliant plans with Anthem as of Sept. 30, 900,000 of whom bought coverage on the exchanges.
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Revised waiver language in the Alexander-Murray bill requires states to “provide coverage and cost sharing protections against excessive out-of-pocket spending that are of comparable affordability, including for low-income people, people with serious health needs, and other vulnerable populations.”
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Congressional Republicans have failed to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, but some of them aren’t ready to stop campaigning on that promise. “I don’t see any problem with talking about repeal and replace. We still want to do it. It’s not over,” Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch said.
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Sen. Patty Murray has agreed to a key demand of Sen. Lamar Alexander, chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which could potentially move bipartisan health care talks forward. Murray has agreed to “significant state flexibility” in order to reach an agreement, per a senior Democratic aide.
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New Mexico Health Connections, a not-for-profit insurance co-op funded through the Affordable Care Act, is a month overdue in filing its second-quarter financial paperwork. And the co-op’s most recent documents, as well as federal ACA documents, show potentially large financial problems that could force New Mexico to shut the company down. This could be another potential black eye for the ACA’s co-op program, in which 19 of 23 companies have already gone under.
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Lawmakers and policy experts are honing in on a small handful of policies — mostly, different forms of federal funding and regulatory flexibility — as the Senate tries its hand at a bipartisan Affordable Care Act fix.
The first of several Senate HELP Committee hearings on the individual market included topics such as funding the cost-sharing subsidies, and expanding regulatory waivers for states. A handful of other policy ideas, including direct government payments to help offset the costs of expensive patients, were also discussed.
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