The Senate Should Build Automatic Enrollment Into Health Reform. Here ’s How.

Conclusion Take-up of health insurance has been below its potential for a long time. Even with the ACA’s penalties for going uninsured, large numbers of Americans are forgoing coverage and either paying additional tax penalties for doing so or applying for an exemption from the law’s individual mandate. The House GOP’s replacement plan for the ACA provides incentives for enrollment and penalties for going uninsured too, but Congressional Budget Office (CBO) believes them to be even weaker than those contained in ACA. If enacted, Congressional Budget Office forecasts there would be much lower take-up of insurance under the GOP’s plan than under the ACA. A well-designed automatic enrollment program can help boost enrollment into coverage whatever the design of the overall system. Under automatic enrollment, consumers would not be forced into coverage they do not want, nor would they be forced to pay any premiums for the coverage they are placed into; also, they would be allowed to disenroll at any time, or switch to a different plan during a subsequent open enrollment period. There’s nothing coercive about it. For the most part, the uninsured do not have principled objections to enrolling in coverage; they remain without insurance out of inertia, or lack of information about their options or the financial assistance available to them. Automatic enrollment can give many of the uninsured coverage at no cost to themselves. Based on previous experience with automatic enro...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - Category: Health Management Authors: Tags: Following the ACA Insurance and Coverage ACA repeal and replace AHCA auto-enrollment high deductible health plans Source Type: blogs