Headlines about "Health plans - policy"
Gathered from the web by the editors at BenefitsLink.com.
[Opinion] This Week's Reasons to Repeal Obamacare
"There are plenty of reasons to repeal Obamacare, especially before its most egregious provisions begin next year, and just this week a few more were added to the list: Small businesses really don't like it.... Huge premium increases projected.... Parts of the law are already failing.... Unrealistic funding promises." (The Heritage Foundation)
How Much Big Insurance Paid a Small-Business Group to Fight a Premium Tax
"The nation's leading health insurance industry group gave $850,000 to a top small-business trade association as part of a campaign to repeal a key provision of President Obama's health care law ... America's Health Insurance Plans cut the six-figure check to the National Federation of Independent Business as part of a partnership aimed at blocking a tax on health care premiums that goes into effect next year and will cost insurers roughly $100 billion over the next decade." (NationalJournal)
[Opinion] The Cruel Things Obama Is Doing to the Labor Market
"[E]mployers are already reacting to ObamaCare. In fact, there was a huge shift to part-time employment in the fast-food industry beginning in January. The reason: ... in deciding whether a worker is full-time or part-time next January (when the mandate becomes effective) the government will look at the average weekly hours worked in the previous year. One fast-food restaurant owner ... (owning 100 franchises) [reported] that the average workweek for their employees has been reduced to 25 hours this year -- compared with 38 last year." (John Goodman, via Forbes)
Fourth Circuit Court to Hear Challenge to Healthcare Reform's Employer Mandate
"The parties will address whether the Anti-Injunction Act applies to the employer mandate (after the Supreme Court's decision that it did not apply to the dispute involving the individual mandate), whether the employer mandate exceeds Congress' powers under the Commerce, Necessary and Proper, and Taxing and Spending clauses of the Constitution, and the impact of the Equal Protection, Free Exercise of Religion, and Establishment Clauses on the employer mandate and other insurance mandates, such as the requirement to cover preventative care, including contraceptive drugs. Importantly, Liberty University's claims regarding Congress' power to enact the employer mandate under the Commerce, Necessary and Proper and/or Taxing and Spending clauses of the Constitution apply to all employers -- both secular and religious." (Healthcare Reform Digest)
California Interpreters Push State for More Trained Healthcare Interpreters
"During the next five years, with the implementation of health care reform, more than 3 million Californians will require language assistance in health care. By state and federal law, these Californians must have access to translating services. And yet, the state does not yet have a clear plan for how a rapidly growing number of patients will access the care to which they are entitled and need." (AFSCME)
[Opinion] Yes, the 37th Obamacare Repeal Vote Matters
"It's easy to write off these votes as pure political spectacle with no substantial [meaning]. Members of Congress can tell their constituents that they voted to repeal Obamacare and move on to other issues. But there's actually a compelling case on the other side, that these actions do really matter in a substantive way. This slew of three dozen repeal votes have changed both how the Affordable Care Act works and how the public perceives it." (Sarah Kliff, in The Washington Post)
[Opinion] Obamacare Is Not About Health Care -- It's About Power
"Obamacare's heavy reliance on the IRS seems somehow fitting, as the entire law relies on a scheme of government controls and regulations to work its will on the health care system. The law imposes price controls on insurance companies and extends a system of price controls for pharmaceutical companies. Obamacare also places a board of unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats at the center of its plans to control health care costs." (The Heritage Foundation)
[Opinion] More Analysis of the Oregon Medicaid Experiment
"[B]ased on statistically insignificant effects of coverage from the Oregon Experiment: (1) The effects that are closest to statistical significance are that coverage would increase the rate of smoking and damage the cardiovascular prognosis of sick people; (2) the best estimated net effect on total population cardiovascular health is extraordinarily tiny; (3) this effect would be achieved by making the sick sicker, while very slightly improving the health of already healthy people; and (4) this effect is almost certainly unattractive on a risk-adjusted basis." (John Goodman's Health Policy Blog)
[Opinion] Why Health Care Should Bring Back the House Call
"If we hope to rein in health care costs and improve quality, we need, in effect, to bring back the house call.... As the older demographic expands, so, too, does the number of people who live with chronic diseases ... That's why an estimated, 49% of our health care costs go toward 5% of Medicare beneficiaries.... [H]ome care is doing exactly what's most needed -- increasing quality and driving down costs." (Harvard Business Review; free registration required)
[Opinion] Can We Talk About the ACA Train Wreck?
"Why shouldn't we abandon ACA? Because, quite simply, it is all that we have right now, and it will provide some limited relief for millions of people. If we were to abandon ACA now, mobilizing a social movement and then enacting and implementing single payer would still take many years--- too long for those who would receive some benefit from ACA now." (Physicians for a National Health Program)
[Opinion] Why 'Medicare-For-All' Is Not the Answer
"The argument for universal Medicare basically comes down to three key claims: (1) Medicare gets lower prices; (2) Medicare's administrative costs are lower; and (3) greater spending does not mean better health. Each of these deserves closer attention." (Dana Goldman and Adam Leive in Health Affairs)
ML Strategies Health Care Reform Update, May 13, 2013 (PDF)
Update on developments in federal and state health care reform legislation and regulations, including summaries of recent announcements and regulatory activity by HHS, CCIIO, IRS and CMS. (ML Strategies, LLC)
[Opinion] Why Medicare Won't Cover You Overseas
"While allowing seniors to receive Medicare coverage abroad is not a cure-all to this fiscal crisis, the potential savings could be significant. Health care costs for a procedure overseas can be less than half of the cost of the exact same procedure performed in the United States, saving both Medicare and the retiree money." (U.S.News and World Report)
The Massachusetts Experience: Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance Post-Reform (PDF)
"In the seven years since Massachusetts enacted its law, the number of people covered by insurance through the workplace increased by about 1 percentage point, running counter to the rest of the nation, which saw employer-based insurance decline by 5.7 percentage points. Coverage in Massachusetts increased even among the smallest businesses, which were exempt from any requirement to provide coverage, and came in the midst of a recession. Interviews with executives in the state indicate a growing number of individuals sought employer-based coverage in an effort to comply with the new requirement to be insured." (PricewaterhouseCoopers)
[Opinion] Sen. Alexander Says Sebelius's Fundraising and Coordinating with Private Entities to Implement Health Care Law 'May Be Illegal'
"Secretary Sebelius's fundraising for and coordinating with private entities helping to implement the new health care law may be illegal, should cease immediately and should be fully investigated by Congress. Such private fundraising circumvents the constitutional requirement that only Congress may appropriate funds. If the secretary or others in her department are closely coordinating the activities of Enroll America, which is headed by a former White House aide, then those actions may be in violation of the Anti-Deficiency Act." (Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, U.S. Senate)
Obama: 'The Law Is Here To Stay'
Excerpt from speech by President Obama: "[T]here are two main things that the American people need to know about this law and what it means. First, if you're one of the nearly 85 percent of Americans who already have health insurance -- whether it's through your employer, or Medicare or Medicaid -- you don't have to do a thing.... [I]f you're one of the tens of millions who don't have health insurance, beginning this fall, you'll finally be able to compare and buy quality, affordable private plans that work for you." (Kaiser Health News)
Middle-Income America's Perspectives on Critical Illness and Financial Security (PDF)
"Middle-income Americans report being generally healthy today, but many are not actively engaged in becoming or staying healthier.... Middle-income Americans of all generations, ethnic backgrounds and geographic regions say they are not prepared for a critical illness diagnosis. Only 1-in-10 feels strongly confident in having enough savings to cover family emergencies or handle the financial implications of a critical illness." (Institute for Wellness Solutions, Washington National)
Most Americans Ill-Prepared for Critical Illness
"One-fourth of respondents just 'don't know' what resources they would use to help offset their expenses ... Forty-five percent believe they would never recover financially from a battle with Alzheimer's disease or dementia; for cancer, that number is 38%." (Employee Benefit News)
[Opinion] Some Thoughts on Medicare Reform Options
"At a time when our politicians have decided to open discussions on reducing government spending in Medicare, it likely is no coincidence that this cluster of articles on ways of reforming the financing of Medicare appears in the leading journal of health policy -- Health Affairs. But beware; the thrust of most of the articles should raise our concerns." (Physicians for a National Health Program)
[Opinion] Does Lack of Health Insurance Kill?
"The results from the Oregon Experiment ... show that extending Medicaid to low-income adults did not improve basic clinical measures of health. Given that, it is a bit hard to see how being uninsured can cause 45,000 premature deaths every year -- a figure rivaling the number of Americans killed in the Vietnam War. That's the number physicians for a National Health Program say die prematurely in America due to a lack of health insurance. The Oregon study results probably did not surprise those who have been paying attention to the serious academic literature, however." (John Goodman's Health Policy Blog)
Limiting the Tax Exclusion of Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance Premiums
"$264 billion in new revenues would be raised from 2014-2023 by imposing a 75 percentile cap on employer-sponsored health coverage. The policy change would affect public-sector employees to a greater extent than private-sector employees. The cap would lead to a tax increase for 15.7 percent of people who file taxes in 2014 and 20.0 percent in 2023." (Urban Institute via Robert Wood Johnson Foundation)
[Opinion] The Unhappy Marriage of Economics and Health Care
"America's health care system is collapsing, and we can blame the Economics profession. Most economists approach health care in the wrong way, viewing it as a commodity like shoes or the laptop on which I write. Instead, health care is an idiosyncratic commodity, subject to uncertainty and 'asymmetric information' leading to destructive behavior. Trying to force health care into a box, treating it like other commodities, economists have promoted cost sharing, market competition, and insurance oversight of health care providers that have inflated the administrative burden while denying ever more Americans access." (Gerald Friedman, for Unions for Single Payer Health Care)
[Opinion] Oregon Medicaid Study Is Devastating News for Obamacare Backers
"[I]f Medicaid doesn't make people any healthier than they were when they were uninsured, that implies that the entire ObamaCare program could be one huge waste of money. (Actually, the results weren't a complete disappointment. There was less depression among the Medicaid enrollees; they reported that they were a tiny bit happier; and among those who had out-of-pocket expenses, they spent about $215 less out of pocket each year. But, remember, we could have reimbursed out-of-pocket spending and spent far less than was actually spent on this program.)" (John Goodman's Health Policy Blog)
[Opinion] The Benefits of Medicaid Expansion: A Reply to the Heritage Foundation
"[W]hile a Medicaid expansion would increase [Ohio's] Medicaid costs by about $2.5 billion from 2014 through 2022, it would also save [the state] $1.5 billion by reducing state spending on current programs in favor of the largely federally financed expansion.... Medicaid expansion would create more than 27,000 Ohio jobs, reduce the number of uninsured by more than 450,000, cut health costs for employers and residents by $285 million and $1.1 billion, respectively, and lessen budget shortfalls facing Ohio's counties." (Timothy Jost in Health Affairs)
Health Care Law Opponents Sue Obama Officials Over IRS Rules
"The IRS is charged with distributing health insurance tax credits through the state exchanges. But the complaint argues that the federally created exchanges cannot deliver the tax credits because the law does not say explicitly that they can. The challengers are asking for a federal court order barring administration and enforcement of the healthcare law in these 33 states." (Reuters)
401(k) World: A Deeper Look into Tom Friedman's Nightmare
"What's created in a 401(k) world other than companies that are gradually unburdened by health and retirement expenses? A void. Retirees won't have enough to live a comfortable lifestyle in their most vulnerable years. Either old-age poverty increases dramatically like it did before the New Deal/Great Society programs like Medicare kicked in, or the government steps up to help people save for retirement and blunt the oppressive risk of being bankrupted by health-care expenses." (John Wasik in Forbes)
[Opinion] Here's What the Oregon Medicaid Study Really Said
"We don't know if the results speak to the health care you get through all health insurance or just Medicaid or if they're just an artifact of the study's timeframe and sample size. We don't know if different ways of designing insurance programs would lead to radically different care outcomes ... And so we don't know whether we're seeing a problem in Medicaid, an inconvenient truth about medical care, or something else." (Ezra Klein in The Washington Post)
Michigan Supreme Court Won't Hear Appeal on Same-Sex Health Care Benefits
"The Michigan Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal by Attorney General Bill Schuette, letting stand the Michigan Civil Service Commission's policy providing health care benefits to same-sex partners of state employees.... The commission's policy stemmed from a union contract that extended the health benefits to the same-sex partners of state employees, plus their dependents. The contract was negotiated by Gov. Jennifer Granholm's administration shortly before Michigan voters approved a 2004 ballot initiative that defined marriage as the union of a man and a woman." (The Detroit News)
[Opinion] State of Self-funding and the TPA Industry
"[W]ill insurers decide that participating in exchanges or even the U.S. health insurance market is simply not a viable business plan and pull out, but keep administrative services only contracts, assuming no risk for claims payment?" (The Institute for HealthCare Consumerism)
Republicans Propose Medicaid Caps
"Under the plan ... the federal government's share of each state's Medicaid payments would be determined by the type of patients who use Medicaid. Separate funding pools would be created for the four populations Medicaid serves: elderly beneficiaries, disabled people, children and adults. The proposal would cap per-person spending within each category." (The Hill)
Oregon Study: Medicaid Had 'No Significant Effect' On Health Outcomes vs. Being Uninsured
"The result calls into question the $450 billion a year we spend on Medicaid, and the fact that Obamacare throws 11 million more Americans into this broken program." (Avik Roy, in Forbes)
[Opinion] Shocker: Oregon Health Study Shows No Significant Health Impacts from Joining Medicaid
"Either people with insurance are doing an okay job of getting treatment for all the major chronic diseases -- which is startling, because as you may recall one of the main reasons that we needed Obamacare was all the poor uninsured people who can't control their blood pressure or diabetes. Or that the treatment Medicaid patients get for their chronic diseases doesn't do them much good." (The Daily Beast)
[Opinion] Twelve Reasons Why States Should Not Expand Medicaid
"[1] Medicaid harms the poor.... [2] Medicaid spending will explode.... [3] Medicaid's access problems will get worse as more doctors drop out.... [4] States will be exposed to higher Medicaid costs when Washington recalculates its matching payments.... [5] Medicaid expansion will worsen the cycle of dependence and harm the economy.... [6] Claims about job creation are exaggerated.... [7] Medicaid crowds out private coverage.... [8] Medicaid raises premiums for those with private insurance.... [9] Medicaid's undercompensated care is a bigger problem than providing uncompensated care for the uninsured.... [10] Expanding Medicaid will expose states to increased risks of fraud and waste.... [11] By rejecting the Medicaid expansion, states encourage others to do the same, fueling the spending cycle.... [12] States should demand more control and flexibility to expand coverage their own way." (Galen Institute)
[Opinion] 'Health Court' Proposal Gains Key Support
"Momentum for the creation of specialized health courts continues to build, as the nation faces rising health care costs without addressing the avoidable waste caused by unreliable medical justice, which fuels billions of dollars in unnecessary 'defensive medicine' annually." (Common Good)
President on Obamacare: 'Still a Big Complicated Piece of Business'
"[T]here are a whole host of benefits that -- for the average American out there, for the 85 to 90 percent of Americans who already have health insurance, this thing's already happened, and their only impact is that their insurance is stronger, better, more secure than it was before. Full stop. That's it. Now they don't have to worry about anything else." (Kaiser Health News)
[Opinion] Strategies for Reducing Health Care Costs, Implementing Payment Innovations
"[America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP)] recommends three strategies for reducing health care costs: [1] Tackling Barriers to Transparency ... [2] Facilitating Benefit Modernization ... [3] Advancing Bold, Structural Reforms ... [T]he new payment reforms are not cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all approaches, but rather tailored initiatives that can support providers at all levels of readiness." (America's Health Insurance Plans)
April 2013 ACA Tracking Poll: Almost Half of Americans Not Sure ACA Still in Effect
"Four in ten Americans (42%) are unaware that the ACA is still the law of the land, including 12 percent who believe the law has been repealed by Congress, 7 percent who believe it has been overturned by the Supreme Court and 23 percent who say they don't know enough to say what the status of the law is. About half the public (49%) says they do not have enough information about the health reform law to understand how it will impact their own family." (Kaiser Family Foundation)
Health Care Experts Propose $1 Trillion in Savings
"The proposals are comprehensive, addressing everything from Medicare Advantage to medical liability reform to licensing barriers. They promise $300 billion in net federal savings over 10 years. In Medicare, the group would phase out fee-for-service care over 10 years by promoting comprehensive payment organizations. They would also enact an out-of-pocket cap on expenses. The paper places special emphasis on cost and quality transparency, urging universal standards that would translate between private and public health insurance." (The Hill)
Affordable Excellence: The Singapore Health Care System
"Singapore ranks sixth in the world in healthcare outcomes, yet spends proportionally less on healthcare than any other high-income country. This [free downloadable e-book sets] out a comprehensive system-level description of healthcare in Singapore, with a view to understanding what can be learned from its unique system design and development path." (Brookings)
[Opinion] Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance: Is a Subsidy Necessary Post-Reform?
"[A] comprehensive consideration of the major provisions of the [ACA] suggests that there may be an opportunity to significantly alter or remove the current employer-sponsored insurance tax subsidy without sacrificing its most important beneficial effects. Contrary to popular perceptions, the ESI subsidy benefits employees, not employers.... [I]t makes sense to consider the possibility that more targeted alternatives may prove to be more efficient in doing so than the current exemption." (Georgetown Public Policy Review)
[Opinion] ACA's Negative Impact on Employment
"Private employers have already begun to reduce their employees' hours to qualify them for the exchange plans, and now ... state governments are considering the same approach.... [E]mployees in this sector that was to be left intact [by the ACA] -- those with employer-sponsored plans -- are not only experiencing changes in their health insurance coverage, they are also experiencing a major loss of income[.]" (Physicians for a National Health Program)
Democratic Senators Tell White House of Concerns About Health Care Law Rollout
"Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat of New Hampshire... said, 'We are hearing from a lot of small businesses in New Hampshire that do not know how to comply with the law.' ... Senator Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa and chairman of the appropriations subcommittee on health care, said he was extremely upset with Mr. Obama's decision to take money from public health prevention programs and use it to publicize the new law, which creates insurance marketplaces in every state." (The New York Times)
Reid on Obamacare for Congressional Employees: 'No Legislative Fix Is Necessary'
"Senator Reid is committed to ensuring that all members of Congress and Congressional staff experience the benefits of the [ACA] in exactly the same way as every other American.... There are not now, have never been, nor will there ever be any discussions about exempting members of Congress or Congressional staff from [ACA] provisions that apply to any employees of any other public or private employer offering health care." (The Washington Post)
Insured But Unable to Afford Health Care
"'Obamacare is lowering the bar for health insurance,' said Dr. Himmelstein, a professor of public health at the City University of New York and primary care doctor. 'The new coverage sold through the insurance exchanges will leave many families paying 40 percent of their health costs out-of-pocket even after they've laid out thousands for premiums. And the administration is allowing states to institute co-payments under Medicaid, even for the poorest of the poor.'" (Physicians for a National Health Program)
No, Congress Isn't Trying to Exempt Itself from Obamacare
"It's not clear that the federal government has the authority to pay for congressional staffers on the exchanges, the way it pays for them now in the federal benefits program. That could lead to a lot of staffers quitting Congress because they can't afford to shoulder 100 percent of their premiums." (The Washington Post)
Benefits in Federal Health Reform May Not Entice Small Businesses
"The [ACA] tries to fill cracks in the employer-based system, so that more people will have insurance and care will become more affordable for everyone. But critics say provisions in the Affordable Care Act aren't enough to ensure that small businesses can provide coverage to their employees. Some provisions may actually discourage employers from providing insurance." (HealthyCal)
House GOP Leadership Falls on Health Vote
"The mutiny forced House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (Va.) to abruptly pull from the floor legislation to shore up a program that allows people with preexisting health conditions to buy into an insurance pool for high-risk patients before they are able to transition to coverage under President Obama's health-care law." (The Washington Post)
Senate Committee Gives Go-Ahead for Tavenner Appointment as CMS Administrator
"With a Senate committee vote in her favor Tuesday morning, Marilyn Tavenner moved a step closer to becoming the first confirmed administrator that [CMS] has had in 7 years.... 'She has been an effective leader during her tenure as the acting administrator for CMS ...,' AMA President Jeremy Lazarus, MD, said ... '[D]uring this important time for the Medicare and Medicaid programs it is important to have a strong, well-qualified leader who is able to build consensus.'" (MedPage Today)
What's the Future for Employer-Provided Benefits?
"Factors behind the soaring cost of care include 'paying providers for doing more rather than for being more efficient,' a wave of consolidation among hospitals that has enabled them to charge higher prices, the longstanding tax breaks for providing health insurance and the relatively low prices charged to patients for seeking care and the fact that 'we're getting older, fatter and sicker' ... [The ACA] will bring more people into health plans, but with only finite resources to pay for their care, the result will be 'more cost-shifting and risk-shifting onto employees'[.]" (Human Resource Executive Online)
Assessing the Effects of the Economy on the Recent Slowdown in Health Spending
"Two macroeconomic variables were found to be highly predictive of the growth in health spending in any given year: Inflation in the current year, as measured by the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) deflator, as well as inflation in the prior two years. The growth in real GDP in the current year, as well as GDP growth in the prior five years. These variables explain over 85% of the variation in health spending growth rates from 1965 through 2011." (Kaiser Family Foundation)
Text of Letter to DOL Secretary Reiterating Request for Results of Mandated Study on Impact of ACA (PDF)
"[On March 19,] we requested that ... you provide a draft of the study, all source data used to create the study, and a timeline under which DOL plans to complete and disseminate the study to congress. To date, DOL has failed to provide any of the requested materials and has made no effort to set up a briefing on this matter. We are extremely troubled by DOL's lack of response." (Committee on Education & the Workforce, U.S. House of Representatives)
The Elephant in the Living Room: Health Plan Nondiscrimination Rules Under the ACA
"Prior to health care reform, the law prohibited only self-funded health plans from discriminating in favor of highly compensated employees with regard to health insurance benefits. Employers were able to provide executive medical plans, class-based benefits, and overall better benefits packages to executives. But health care reform changes that, applying nondiscrimination to all group health plans. This may not seem that significant, but in reality, it changes the entire health insurance landscape." (Employee Benefit News)
[Opinion] We Still Have a Healthcare Spending Problem
"The idea that we have licked the problem of health-care cost increases is no more probable today than it was in the past. Our nation has made no fundamental change in how health care is paid for or delivered." (Drew Altman and and Larry Levitt in the Washington Post)
Tracking Costs of Obama's Health Law in Budget Isn't Easy
"You'd think there'd be a chapter in the new 2014 budget that lays it all out. Wrong. Well, maybe a table? Wrong again. A box? Nope. It turns out that the costs of the Affordable Care Act ... are sprinkled here and there through hundreds of pages of budget books.... So how much will the new coverage cost the government? Hard to tell." (Associated Press via The Washington Post)
Want More Low-Income Workers to Have Health Coverage? Then Expand Medicaid.
"81 percent of workers earning less than 138 percent of the poverty line don't get coverage through their employer ... Their employer doesn't offer coverage or offers coverage that they can't afford." (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)
Bipartisan Center Offers Plan to Reduce Health Spending
"The plan offers more than 50 recommendations that would cut the federal deficit by about $560 billion over the next decade. About $300 billion of those savings would come from Medicare. The document makes a variety of recommendations to change how health care is delivered and financed in both the public and private sectors." (Kaiser Health News)
A Bipartisan Rx for Patient-Centered Care and System-wide Cost Containment
"Our policies would engage both beneficiaries and providers with incentives to pursue a more coordinated, accountable, and sustainable health care system. These recommendations span four broad categories: 1. Improve and Enhance Medicare to Incent Quality and Care Coordination; 2. Reform Tax Policy and Clarify Consolidation Rules to Encourage Greater Efficiency and Competition; 3. Prioritize Quality, Prevention, and Wellness; and 4. Incent and Empower States to Improve Care and Constrain Costs Through Delivery, Payment, Workforce, and Liability Reform. Our recommendations would improve how health care is delivered and financed in both the public and private sectors." (Bipartisan Policy Center)
[Opinion] Republican Congressman's Letter to Senator Baucus About Obamacare 'Train Wreck'
"Secretary Sebelius's implementation of the law is certainly flawed, but the policy process produced a law that could not possibly be implemented successfully. As legislators, it is our responsibility to write bills that clearly explain our meaning and have achievable goals. By your own admission, this law is a disaster." (U.S. Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kans)
Consumer Assistance in Health Reform, April 2013 (PDF)
"The ACA seeks to expand coverage and to promote competition among health insurers in order to control costs. Achieving these goals depends on consumers ' ability to actively and effectively participate in health coverage in ways they do not today. This brief outlines the needs for consumer assistance that people will have and the resources available under the ACA to address them, and identifies implementation issues that may impact the effectiveness of consumer assistance." (Kaiser Family Foundation)
[Opinion] The Future of the Affordable Care Act: A Debate on Its Effects
"The [ACA] contains elements on which there is broad agreement. The current fee-for-service system needs to be replaced. So do certain current practices of insurance companies that are both understandable and deplorable ... The tax breaks for employer financed health care need to be curbed or eliminated.... [But] even if overhead expenses are reduced ... and even if administration were perfect ... a lot of people are going to have high-voltage sticker shock. And what that means in turn is that the exchanges may face nasty adverse selection problems, boosting premiums still more.... [And] real errors will be made. This law is complicated. People don't understand it." (Henry J. Aaron, via Brookings)
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