Lowering the age of Medicare eligibility would allow 1.5 million to 2.5 million more people to be insured, but a buy-in program would raise premiums and out-of-pocket costs for younger members of these plans since some over-50 members would no longer be contributing to that insurance pool.
President-elect Joe Biden has suggested...CMS Rules
Last week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released a propose rule for 2022 Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters. The proposed rule would lower the user fee or Affordable Care Act (ACA) insurers to 2.25% of the premium for the coverage year 2022 and also would enable states to partner directly with the private...Arizona News
At the start of the pandemic, 160 million people in America had insurance through their employers. The pandemic’s disruption to the economy resulted in a loss of coverage for an estimated 14.6 million workers and their dependents by June of this year.
Millions who still have employer benefits have lost wages and income, making...Arizona News
COVID-19 positivity rates are climbing nationwide and Arizona joined them this week with the worst recorded numbers in the state since the spike in June. Hospitals, schools and Governor Doug Ducey are all unified in stressing the importance of safety precautions at this time. A study shows that deaths from the virus are nearly double for...National News
Major actors across the healthcare industry are anticipating changes in store for the future Biden-Harris administration as the president-elect signals a path towards stability after four years of erratic policy and attacks on the Affordable Care Act.
However, without a Senate majority, the president-elect will have some...National News
Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death comes just weeks before the Supreme Court is set to hear another case to decide the fate of the Affordable Care Act, casting doubt on its future.
A little over a week after Ginsburg's death, President Trump nominated Judge Amy Coney Barrett as her replacement. It didn't take long before the...National News
United States Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died last Friday at the age of 87 from complications with pancreatic cancer. The death of the liberal judge raises questions not only about the future of the high court's political makeup, but also the future of the Affordable Care Act.
Justice Ginsburg was expected to cast a...Health Related Groups
According to an undercover audit completed by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office, some health insurance brokers provided misleading or false information to potential customers about whether their plans covered preexisting conditions.
The audit was requested by Senate Democrats with the intention of determining whether...Arizona News
The Commonwealth Fund’s Scorecard on State Health System Performance assesses all 50 states and the District of Columbia on 49 measures of access to healthcare, service use, costs and quality of care, health outcomes, and income-based healthcare disparities.
Prior to COVID-19’s emergence, the 2020 scorecard documents state-level...National News
Last week during the Republican National Convention, President Donald Trump revealed the healthcare agenda for his second term. The short list of bullet points has been criticized for a lack of detail, but his current record in office shows that there are things his administration started in his first term that they would like to finish...Arizona News
ACA-enrollment has dropped each year of the Trump presidency, a trend that’s also been seen in Arizona. The most recent data from Kaiser Family Foundation reports there are 153,020 Arizonans enrolled in marketplace plans. The Trump administration has dramatically cut funding for Navigators tasked with getting the word out about ACA...National News
Things are progressing in the landmark case California v. Texas, in which the fate of the Affordable Care Act and the Trump Administration’s quest to end the program will be decided. This week the U.S. Supreme Court set a hearing date for the case and made efforts to expand oral argument time—but not for everyone.
The case,...Arizona News
The COVID-19 pandemic has put extreme importance on affordable, accessible healthcare.
Kaiser Family Foundation’s analysis of CMS’ early data on Medicaid finds enrollment grew by 1.2 million, or 1.7%, since December, which includes 800,000 from March. The trends likely reflect the downturn in the economy in addition to the Family...Arizona News
Last Friday, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld a decision allowing short-term health plans that do not follow regulations outlined by the Affordable Care Act. These plans have been part of an effort to side-step the ACA by President Donald Trump and his administration, as efforts to "repeal and...Arizona News
A federal judge for the District Court for the District of Maryland ruled that the restrictions from a 2019 Trump administration rule requiring ACA marketplace insurers to bill separately for abortions violated the ACA and were “arbitrary and capricious”. The Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Medicare and...National News
Last week, 18 states, including Arizona, two individuals and the Trump administration’s Department of Justice filed opening briefs for California v. Texas, a case currently before the Supreme Court that debates the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act. Nearly 23 million Americans have insurance through the ACA marketplace and...Arizona News
Earlier this month, HHS repealed protections for transgender individuals seeking medical care and three days later, the United States Supreme Court delivered a ruling defending LGBT people from discrimination in the workplace under Title VII.
These two major changes in how the law impacts care for sexual and reproductive health...National News
This week House Democrats released legislation that aims to improve the Affordable Care Act by adjusting key issues in the law and adding incentives to expand Medicaid in states that did not elect to do so.
This legislation comes before the June 25th vote and expected opening briefs in the Supreme Court case California v. Texas,...National News
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the Trump administration firmly held its position on overturning the ACA in the case California et al v. Texas et al currently under decision by the United States Supreme Court.
The month of May brought new support to the defendants’ case on several fronts: Wisconsin has joined the defense of the...Arizona News
While the Supreme Court of the United States decides the fate of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the Arizona Legislature considers a bill allowing protections for Arizonans with preexisting medical conditions. The bill is being advertised as a fail-safe, on the chance that the Trump administration wins its lawsuit against the...