Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Critics Say Iowa's Stopgap Plan For Its Individual Marketplace Hurts Low-Income Residents
Modern Healthcare: Iowa's ACA Waiver Plan Would Redistribute Subsidies From The Poor To Wealthier People
Does making health insurance premiums more affordable for healthier, wealthier people justify sharply increasing out-of-pocket costs for lower-income and sicker people? That's one of the key questions critics are raising about Iowa's sweeping new proposal to revamp its individual insurance market and abolish its federal exchange. The state submitted the plan—called the Iowa Stopgap Measure—to HHS and the U.S. Treasury Department Tuesday under Section 1332 of the Affordable Care Act. (Meyer, 8/23)
The Wall Street Journal: States Watch Iowa’s Push To Reshape Health Law
Iowa asked for federal permission to alter major provisions of the Affordable Care Act next year, a proposal that will be closely watched by officials in other states who hope to rewrite parts of the health law as Republican efforts to do so in Congress have stalled. Iowa’s plan, which state officials said they are already preparing to implement pending federal approval, would go further than proposals that other states have made so far to revamp the health law’s rules. The Iowa setup would offer just one type of insurance plan in the individual market and reshape the subsidies that help people buy coverage, among other changes. (Wilde Mathews, Hackman and Armour, 8/23)
Meanwhile, in other health law news —
The CT Mirror: State Asks Anthem, ConnectiCare, To File New Rates
The Connecticut Insurance Department on Wednesday asked Anthem and ConnectiCare to submit new rate filings for 2018 based on the possibility the federal government will stop “cost-sharing reduction” payments to the insurers that subsidize lower co-payment and deductibles for low-income Americans. (Radelat, 8/23)
The Star Tribune: High-Risk Pool Coverage Is Costly
Answering the question is complicated, but a new state report suggests that premiums under the old high-risk pool would be much higher today than what individuals are paying out-of-pocket for coverage in employer plans and for certain policies under the federal Affordable Care Act. (Snowbeck, 8/23)
