Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Consumers Urged To Shop Carefully For 2016 Marketplace Plan To Save Money, Get Best Care
The Fiscal TImes: Why You Might Be Choosing The Wrong Obamacare Plan
Shopping for health insurance can be a baffling maze of unfamiliar terms and puzzling acronyms — premiums, deductibles, PPOs, HMOs, POS. The Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, added new elements that can heighten the confusion: Consumers have to navigate four different levels of plans, determine what subsidies they’re eligible for based on their income and calculate what plan would work best for them over the coming year. That’s why some Obamacare shoppers who signed up through healthcare.gov have chosen plans that cost too much. (Dent, 11/5)
The Oregonian: 5 Things You Need To Do When Buying Health Insurance
Steven Conner, a 56-year-old self-employed contractor in Gresham, learned recently his health plan premium will jump by $145 a month. Conner is not alone. In June the state approved significant hikes for the more than 240,000 Oregonians who buy their own policies and are not on Medicare. (Budnick, 11/5)
Marketplace: Insurers Offer Narrower Networks On Health Exchanges
When open enrollment began on the nation's healthcare exchanges on November 1, many people who bought insurance for 2015 found that the 2016 plans they had to choose from have narrower networks of hospitals. In addition, premiums might be significantly higher. Insurers have asked the federal government for permission to increase premiums by as much as 40 percent or more. (Safo, 11/5)
The Wall Street Journal: New Federal Initiative Aims To Enroll Northern New Jersey’s Uninsured
When Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell hosts a round-table discussion Friday at a health clinic in Jersey City, N.J., she is expected to do the predictable: encourage people to enroll in health insurance offered through the Affordable Care Act. More surprising is a new federal enrollment effort targeted for northern New Jersey. The state typically fares better than many other states when percentages of the uninsured are compared. ... the northern part of the state has characteristics that make it ripe for an increase in health-insurance sign-ups, including a significant population of Hispanic residents, who are more likely to be uninsured than non-Hispanic whites. (Ramey, 11/5)
The Wall Street Journal: Number Of Uninsured In U.S. Declines In First Half Of Year
An estimated 9% of Americans were uninsured in the first half of 2015, a significantly lower rate than in years before the health law was in effect, according to new federal government figures published Thursday. (Radnofsky, 11/5)
National Journal: The Price Of Bucking Obamacare Is About To Increase—Will People Still Pay It?
The fee levied on those who go without insurance but who can afford it sharply increases in 2016, a result of a three-year phase-in of the penalty. The higher the fee, health experts say, the likelier it is that consumers will choose to get or stay covered. But there’s a big caveat: It all depends on whether or not uninsured Americans, or those thinking about leaving the exchanges, know about the individual mandate and its steep fee increase. ... The fee for not having health insurance next year won’t be felt until Americans file their federal taxes due April 2017. But it’s much more than in the past: $695 per adult and $347.50 per child, or 2.5 percent of a household’s income—whichever is higher. (Roubein, 11/5)
And in news about state health marketplaces -
Minnesota Public Radio: Assessing The Usefulness Of MNsure's New Shopping Tool
Open enrollment for individual health insurance plans got underway over the weekend and so far MNsure reports that its computer systems and call center are operating that way they are supposed to. (Wurzer and Zdechlik, 11/5)
The Washington Post: Maryland To Seek More Money From Health-Exchange Vendors
Maryland’s attorney general sent a letter to lawmakers last week complaining that an upcoming audit could undermine efforts to recover money spent on the state’s flawed health exchange by focusing on mistakes made by government officials rather than the vendors who built the portal. (Nirappil, 11/5)
Meanwhile, The Huffington Post examines what the Kentucky governor's election may mean for the health law -
The Huffington Post: GOP Win In Kentucky 'Heartbreaking' For Obamacare Advocates
Kentucky attracted the national spotlight over the past two years as the state slashed its uninsured rate and implemented Obamacare more smoothly than President Barack Obama himself. Progressive activists and health care advocates fear that's all in jeopardy after Tuesday's victory by conservative Republican Matt Bevin in the race to be the next governor. (Young and Cohn, 11/5)
