ACA Round-Up: Governors Offer Individual Market Stabilization Proposals And More

On August 30, 2017, governors John Kasich of Ohio, John Hickenlooper of Colorado, and six other Republican, Democratic, and Independent governors sent a letter to the Republican and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate asking them to take immediate steps to restore stability and affordability to the individual health insurance market. The letter was sent ahead of the testimony governors are expected to offer to the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee on September 7. The immediate steps recommended by the governors include: funding cost-sharing reduction payments through 2019; creating a temporary fund to stabilize the reinsurance market, funded for at least two years; exempting insurers that cover counties with only one exchange insurer from the health insurance tax on their exchange plans and allowing residents of these counties to buy into the Federal Employees Health Benefit Program; and keeping the individual mandate until a better solution to encouraging continuous coverage is found, subject to states implementing alternatives through state waiver programs. The governors also suggest additional steps that states could take and Congress could facilitate to encourage market stability. These include: federal and state outreach and enrollment efforts to encourage younger, healthier people to enroll in the individual market; fixing the “family glitch” to allow families that are not offered affordable family employer coverage to gain individual...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - Category: Health Management Authors: Tags: Following the ACA Insurance and Coverage budget reconciliation governors John Hickenlooper John Kasich out-of-network billing States Source Type: blogs