Iowa Waiver Application Presents Crucial Decision Point For Administration; Judge Rebuffs EEOC On ADA/GINA Rules

On August 21, 2017, Iowa submitted its application for a 1332 Stopgap Measure innovation waiver to the Departments of Health and Human Services and Treasury. An earlier version of this application was discussed at length in this blog in June. Although the most recent version of the application has cleaned up some of the procedural defects in the earlier submission, the substantive legal defects and practical problems posed by the proposal remain substantial. Many of the questions raised by earlier drafts also remain unanswered. Section 1332 of the Affordable Care Act permits states to apply for waivers of certain provisions of the ACA to facilitate innovative state attempts to achieve the goals of the ACA by other means. But only specific provisions of the ACA can be waived under section 1332. Moreover, a state must ensure that a waiver program covers at least a comparable number of people as would have been covered under the ACA, with coverage at least as comprehensive and affordable as ACA coverage, and that it does so without increasing the federal budget deficit. Iowa says that its individual market is in crisis. Although Iowa had asserted in initial drafts of its proposal that it would have no insurers in its individual market for 2018, one insurer, Medica, has stuck with the market. But Medica is requesting a 56 percent premium increase for 2018. The latest version of Iowa’s proposal claims that, although insurance might remain available for 2018, it will not be affor...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - Category: Health Management Authors: Tags: Costs and Spending Following the ACA Insurance and Coverage 1332 waivers Americans With Disabilities Act cost-sharing reduction payments Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act Source Type: blogs