U.S. Government Recovers Millions In Funds From States Where Exchanges Faltered
The Wall Street Journal reports that more than $200 million has been recouped, and officials hope to collect more of the original grant funding. Meanwhile, an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation finds that consumers who don't buy health insurance in 2016 will face bigger tax penalties. Also, the Congressional Budget Office predicts the health law will likely have an impact on the American workforce.
The Wall Street Journal:
U.S. Recoups Funds From States That Faltered On Health Exchanges
The Obama administration on Tuesday said it has recouped more than $200 million in funding given to states that faltered in setting up their own health-insurance exchanges. Government officials are seeking to collect more of the original grant funding, an effort that they said shows they are closely monitoring taxpayer dollars that state-run exchanges received under the Affordable Care Act. (Armour, 12/8)
The New York Times:
Americans Who Don’t Buy Health Coverage Face Heftier Fine In ’16, Analysis Finds
Americans who remain uninsured in 2016 despite having the option of buying health coverage through an Affordable Care Act marketplace will owe an average tax penalty of $969 per household, a new analysis has found. That amount is substantially higher than the average estimated penalty of $661 for those who went uninsured in 2015, according to the analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation. But it remains to be seen how effective the rising fine will be in persuading the roughly 10.5 million uninsured Americans who are eligible for marketplace coverage to buy it. (Goodnough, 12/9)
Kaiser Health News:
Uninsured People Eligible For Obamacare Face Average $969 Penalty In 2016
The penalty for failing to have health insurance is going up, perhaps even higher than you expected. Among uninsured individuals who are not exempt from the Affordable Care Act penalty, the average household fine for not having insurance in 2015 will be $661, rising to $969 per household in 2016, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation analysis. Individuals will pay the penalty when they complete their federal taxes the following spring. (Galewitz, 12/9)
Kaiser Health News:
State Obamacare Exchanges ‘Sustainable’ Without Federal Aid, Official Tells Congress
State insurance exchanges are healthy financially even without the federal funding that ran out this year, a top Obama administration official told a House subcommittee Tuesday. “All states are sustainable today,” said Andy Slavitt, acting administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. He refused to predict if any of the remaining 13 state exchanges would eventually need to shift to the federal exchange. (Galewitz, 12/9)
NBC News:
No Obamacare Break This Year, Government Warns
People who don't have health insurance yet for next year need to hurry up and get it or risk a fine, the federal government warns. And the fine's going up this year. Although the Health and Human Services Department offered a special extension last year to sign up, because many people may not yet have fully understood the requirements, there will be no such break this coming year. (Fox, 12/8)
The Fiscal Times:
Obamacare Won’t Really Cost The U.S. 2 Million Jobs
The Congressional Budget Office released a new working paper this week predicting that the Affordable Care Act will have a negative effect on the size of the U.S. labor supply over the coming decade. ... But the CBO isn’t looking specifically at job loss. It’s making projections about aggregate hours worked and the total number of workers who choose to stay in the workforce: “The labor force is projected to be about 2 million full-time-equivalent workers smaller in 2025 under the ACA than it would have been otherwise,” the agency wrote. That is, fewer work hours will be logged and paid for, the rough equivalent of 2 million jobs. But those two things — reduced hours across the economy and total jobs — are different things. (Pianin, 12/8)
Health News Florida:
What Happens When Marriage Makes Health Insurance Affordable
Not long after Sherry Poulin married her husband Louis last year, the newlyweds sat in their kitchen with health insurance information laid out in front of them. Before getting married, Poulin paid $50 a month for a subsidized plan through Obamacare. Now, for a plan offered through her husband’s employer, she was looking at about $500 a month. Poulin married into what’s known as the “family glitch”: when she got married, she lost her subsidy to buy insurance in the individual marketplace. (Mack, 12/8)
The Associated Press:
Important Deadline Ahead For Health Insurance Marketplace
Less than a week remains for Illinois consumers to buy private health insurance for coverage starting Jan. 1 on the marketplace created by President Barack Obama's health care law. Tuesday is an important enrollment deadline. Consumers who want their coverage to start at the first of the year need to choose a health plan by that date. (12/9)
In other news, The New York Times reports on the impact of a small legislative provision slipped into a major piece of legislation last year by Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a GOP presidential hopeful -
The New York Times:
Marco Rubio Quietly Undermines Affordable Care Act
A little-noticed health care provision that Senator Marco Rubio of Florida slipped into a giant spending law last year has tangled up the Obama administration, sent tremors through health insurance markets and rattled confidence in the durability of President Obama’s signature health law. So for all the Republican talk about dismantling the Affordable Care Act, one Republican presidential hopeful has actually done something toward achieving that goal. (Pear, 12/9)
