Category: Health Reform

With the Georgia runoff elections giving Democrats control of the U.S. Senate, Drew Altman discusses President-elect Biden’s potential health care agenda and suggests that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services could have an expanded role and that it may be time to rename it and elevate it to a cabinet agency.

In this column for the JAMA Health Forum, Larry Levitt explores what President-elect Biden might do to advance his health care vision both through legislation and through executive orders and waivers and demonstrations.

As winter sets in and COVID-19 cases and deaths reach records in most parts of the country, more Americans say they wear masks every time they leave home now (73%) than said so in May (52%), a new KFF Health Tracking Poll finds. A small minority (11%) say they wear masks only some of the…More

This brief outlines the potential health policy actions that President Biden could take using executive authority, based on campaign pledges, and actions that would reverse or modify regulations or guidance issued by the Trump Administration.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires new private health insurance plans to cover many recommended preventive services without any patient cost-sharing. This tracker presents up-to-date information on the adult preventive services nongrandfathered private plans must cover, by condition, including a summary of the recommendation, the target population, the effective date of coverage, and related federal coverage clarifications.

For the third straight year, more insurers are entering the ACA Marketplaces or expanding their service area in 2021, creating more choices for consumers shopping for coverage during the 2021 open enrollment period.

Whether new to the market or reenrolling, everyone who wants 2021 coverage through the ACA Marketplace must sign up during Open Enrollment. Here, we detail ten ways in which the 2021 ACA open enrollment period differs from enrollment periods in past years.

This post examines the implications of Republican voters wanting the Supreme Court to overturn the entire Affordable Care Act, but not the law’s protections for people with pre-existing conditions.

This interactive map shows the status of all Section 1332 waivers requested by states. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) allows states to apply for innovation waivers to alter key ACA requirements in the individual and small group insurance markets and can be used to shore up fragile insurance markets, address unique state insurance market issues, or experiment with alternative models of providing coverage to state residents.

This brief describes health insurance subsidies available through the Affordable Care Act’s marketplaces, including premium subsidies that would be provided in the form of tax credits, as well as other subsidies that would lower cost sharing to eligible Americans. It provides details on who is eligible for the assistance, the maximum repayment limits for the credits, and out-of-pocket spending limits.

Nota: esta calculadora refleja las primas para 2021. Esta calculadora ilustra las primas (el costo mensual de su seguro) y subsidios para las personas que compran seguro médico por su propia cuenta en el nuevo mercado de seguros de salud (o de intercambio) creado por la Ley de Cuidado de Salud a Bajo Precio (Affordable…More

Nota: esta calculadora refleja las primas para 2020. Esta calculadora ilustra las primas (el costo mensual de su seguro) y subsidios para las personas que compran seguro médico por su propia cuenta en el nuevo mercado de seguros de salud (o de intercambio) creado por la Ley de Cuidado de Salud a Bajo Precio (Affordable…More

The Health Insurance Marketplace Calculator, updated with 2020 premium data, provides estimates of health insurance premiums and subsidies for people purchasing insurance on their own in health insurance exchanges (or “Marketplaces”) created by the Affordable Care Act (ACA). With this calculator, you can enter your income, age, and family size to estimate your eligibility for subsidies and how much you could spend on health insurance.

In this perspective published by the Washington Post, KFF Executive Vice President for Health Policy Larry Levitt explains why the popular Affordable Care Act provisions that ensure people with pre-existing conditions can access affordable health insurance can’t easily be preserved if other related provisions are overturned.

As the 2020 Election Day approaches, many candidates continue to focus on health care issues, including on the public health and economic response to COVID-19, the future of the Affordable Care Act, health care costs and abortion. To help reporters understand and cover these issues, KFF offers independent, non-partisan policy analysis, polling and other research and…More

This analysis seeks to better understand the experiences of transgender people in the US health care system. We examine the demographic characteristics of transgender adults ages 18 and over and their access to health care and insurance coverage.

In an Axios column, Drew Altman discusses how this election year health isn’t a single issue — but several — and Joe Biden has the edge over President Trump on all of them, even as opposition to the ACA remains popular with Trump’s base.  

A look at preliminary marketplace rate filings reveals many premium changes for 2021 are moderate thus far, with increases or decreases of a few percentage points. However, most insurers have not yet incorporated the rate impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in their rate changes for 2021, so many of these proposed rates are likely to change.

The poll examines the public’s views on the Supreme Court case to overturn the Affordable Care Act and its protections for people with pre-existing conditions. Less than a month from the results of the 2020 presidential election, this poll examines the top issues for voters (the economy, the coronavirus pandemic, health care, criminal justice and policing, among others) as well as which candidate, Biden or Trump, they think has the better approach to handle key health care policy areas.

This compiles key polling data examining the favorability of the Affordable Care Act and its provisions, including protections for people with pre-existing conditions.

Health care is a top issue for voters in the 2020 election. To understand the health care landscape in which the 2020 election policy debates will unfold, these state health care snapshots provide data across a variety of health policy subjects, including health care costs, health coverage—Medicaid, Medicare, private insurance—and the uninsured, women’s health, health status, and access to care.

U.S. Supreme Court decisions shape health policy in important ways. The nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett, if confirmed, is expected to establish a solid 6:3 conservative majority that could affect case outcomes in several areas. This issue brief considers the potential implications of a reconfigured Court for health policy issues, including those already on the Court’s docket for the coming term and those that the Court may choose to consider in this term or in the future.

Because the prevalence of depression and anxiety disorders appears to have increased substantially since the start of the Coronavirus pandemic, if the ACA is repealed, mental illnesses could be the most common pre-existing conditions.

This slideshow explains the similarities and differences among major proposals to lower prescription drug costs introduced by the Trump Administration, members of Congress, and the Biden campaign.

This side-by-side comparison examines President Trump’s record and former Vice President Biden’s positions across a wide range of key health issues, including the response to the pandemic, the Affordable Care Act marketplace, Medicaid, Medicare, drug prices, reproductive health, mental health and opioids, immigration and health coverage, and health care costs.

With the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a lawsuit before the Supreme Court to overturn the Affordable Care Act (ACA) suddenly has a much better chance of succeeding. And, that could make protections for people with pre-existing conditions an even bigger campaign issue.

This brief examines where the candidates stand on four key aspects of the nation’s mental health and substance abuse challenges: the opioid epidemic, suicide rates, mental health parity, and mental health workforce. On each issue, the brief summarizes the policy positions of President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden.

This brief examines the implications of coronavirus-related social distancing practices and the current financial crisis on mental health, including challenges to accessing mental health or substance use services.

This interactive chart allows users to track public opinion on the Affordable Care Act, from the inception of the law to the present, for subgroups based on age, race, income, gender, party identification and insurance status.

A look at preliminary marketplace rate filings reveals many premium changes for 2021 are moderate thus far, with increases or decreases of a few percentage points. However, most insurers have not yet incorporated the rate impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in their rate changes for 2021, so many of these proposed rates are likely to change.

In his Axios column, Drew Altman shows how threatening the Affordable Care Act in the U.S. Supreme Court, or overturning it, could hurt President Trump with independent voters, and says that could matter most in battleground states.