Despite Compressed Sign-Up Period, ACA Enrollment Nearly Matches Last Year’s
HHS announces that 8.8 million people signed up for coverage through the federal insurance marketplace.
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HHS announces that 8.8 million people signed up for coverage through the federal insurance marketplace.
In this episode of “What The Health?” Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Joanne Kenen of Politico, Alice Ollstein of Talking Points Memo and Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times discuss this week’s news, including health issues in the just-passed tax bill and a look back on the year in health policy.
These accounts are exempt from taxes and linked to high-deductible health plans. Republicans tried last summer in their unsuccessful efforts to replace the health law to make the accounts more enticing for consumers, but they didn’t make those changes in the current tax bill.
Funding for the joint federal-state Children’s Health Insurance Program expired Oct. 1, and Congress has not yet agreed to a plan to continue the popular coverage.
It’s a regular part of the politically charged debate over health care. But the lines sometimes blur between rhetoric and how Canada’s system actually works.
American single-payer advocates want to emulate Canada’s system. But many Canadian experts say the U.S. first needs to address some basic questions.
In this episode of “What the Health?” Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Joanne Kenen of Politico, Alice Ollstein of Talking Points Memo and Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times discuss health issues in the emerging tax bill, including the likely repeal of fines for those who fail to obtain health insurance. They also talk about the end of “open enrollment” for 2018 individual health insurance coverage.
In Tennessee, an Obamacare consumer saw her rate go from $750 to just $5 a month. But a man in Maryland had to buy a less comprehensive plan to keep his costs under $1,000 a month. Income and geography determine prices for health insurance in the fifth year of Affordable Care Act coverage.
The federal marketplace generally uses credit reports to help verify identities, but that doesn’t work if consumers have put a security freeze on them — as some did after the Equifax breach this year. Workarounds for this issue exist, but they make the process more time-consuming.
It’s not just ideology; a lot of people don’t understand what the law does or how it works.
Although in most states the insurance marketplace deadline is Friday, some consumers might be entitled to a special enrollment period if their 2017 plan is being discontinued or they are from states designated by the federal government as hurricane disaster areas.
Even if the Republican from Maine can get her party to go along, her suggestions to bolster the individual insurance market may be too little, too late.
In this episode of “What the Health?” Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Stephanie Armour of the Wall Street Journal, Alice Ollstein of Talking Points Memo and Margot Sanger Katz of The New York Times discuss new health spending numbers from the federal government, as well as how the year-end legislating in Congress is being complicated by health issues.
People who have a plan from the health law’s marketplace and who don’t actively shop for a new one will be auto-enrolled on Dec. 16. But unlike past years, most people won’t be able to change those plans if they don’t like them.
Insurance has often been a tough-sell among these young people because they are often healthy and choosing a plan is complicated. A shorter enrollment and less outreach could dampen enthusiasm.
But buyer, beware. Cobbling together “packages” designed to cover gaps in high-deductible health plans could shortchange consumers, warn advocates.
Harvesting U.S. crops has been left to an aging population of farmworkers whose health has suffered from decades of hard labor. Older workers have a greater chance of getting injured and of developing chronic illnesses.
The Affordable Care Act has increased the number of people with insurance, but shopping around for plans puts a burden on patients, especially this year.
In this chat, KHN’s Julie Appleby offers a progress report on the 2018 sign up season.
With less federal funding and marketing, local groups are feeling the pressure to keep up enrollment in the plans offered through the federal health law’s marketplace.
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