Policy and Legislation
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.
The U.S. Senate on Thursday approved a bill repealing the bulk of the Affordable Care Act in a vote of 52 to 47 that largely went along party lines.
The case hinges on Vermont legislation requiring all administrators of self-insured benefit plans to regularly submit data on medical claims, pharmacy claims, member eligibility, provider and other information for use in the state's unified healthcare database.
Though the outgoing governor of Kentucky and other supporters of the president's Affordable Care Act have been critical of a pledge made by incoming governor Matt Bevin to abolish the state exchange in favor of switching to the federal marketplace, his plan may have little effect on consumers.
The letter is an effort to continue limiting the amount of assistance insurers can obtain from the government to lessen losses they sustain under the Affordable Care Act.
The state's only health insurance co-op will shut down operations on December 31, after failing to find additional financing, Meritus officials announced November 25.
Many co-op plans were priced low, and customers poured in. But these new customers had high health costs, so the co-ops had to start paying a lot of bills. The math didn't add up
CMS is requesting comment on whether health plans should designate network strength, such as indicating whether a plan has a broad number of doctors or health facilities in the network or not.
Many said they anticipate the federal government will act to forestall widespread departures, particularly because continued withdrawals could be politically explosive during an election year.
Consumers have received more than $2.4 billion in Affordable Care Act premium rebates since 2011, but the number of people owed refunds by insurers decreased by more than a million this year compared to last, according to a report released Thursday by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.