Model Legislation for State Individual Mandate
[*Updated Feb. 21, 2018*] The tax bill passed in December 2017 repealed the penalty associated with the Affordable Care Act’s individual shared responsibility provision, also known as the individual mandate. The provision required those who could afford health coverage to either maintain coverage, qualify for an exemption, or make a payment with their federal income tax return. The Congressional Budget Office projects that repealing the mandate penalty will increase insurance premiums by 10 percent on average and result in 13 million more persons being uninsured. A number of states have expressed an interested in examining a state-level individual mandate, which Massachusetts has had in place since before the ACA.
State Medicaid Financing Fact Sheets
As states seek to understand the impacts of proposed changes to Medicaid financing, comparative data on where states stand can be very valuable. The memos included here use state-specific data to analyze the impact of proposals to limit federal Medicaid funding on all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
States Expanding Medicaid See Significant Budget Savings and Revenue Gains
In addition to the impact that state decisions to expand Medicaid have had on coverage rates across the country, there is an increasing body of evidence showing consistent economic benefits among these states. This report, prepared by Manatt Health, is an update to an April 2015 State Network report, and examines data regarding Medicaid expansion in eleven states, demonstrating that states continue to realize budget savings and revenue gains as a result of expanding Medicaid.
Qualified Health Plan Review in Marketplaces with State Plan Management: An Analysis of the Division of Labor Between State Exchanges and Other State Agencies
States have implemented a variety of different methods to handle the review and certification of qualified health plans (QHPs). The Health Insurance Exchanges (HIX) Research Group at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at Wharton (LDI) recently collected data from 30 states, including those with State Based Marketplaces (SBMs), State Partnership Marketplaces (SPMs), Supported State Based Marketplaces (SSBMs), and Federally Facilitated Marketplaces (FFMs) with state plan management. This brief summarizes the findings within this dataset, which outlines the various plan management and certification functions assumed by different state agencies across these marketplace models.
Health Insurance Literacy Memo and Resources
While millions of Americans have newly gained health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), there is evidence that coverage alone does not necessarily translate into access to health care. This memo, prepared by the State Health Access Data Assistance Center (SHADAC), provides background information on health insurance literacy, summarizes the research around current consumer knowledge, and offers recommendations for marketplaces on how to build on it. Additionally, the State Network has compiled a library of health insurance literacy materials developed by four marketplaces.
States Expanding Medicaid See Significant Budget Savings and Revenue Gains
As some states continue to debate whether to implement Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act, early results from those that have done so show the impact this decision has had on their state budgets. States that expanded the number of people eligible for Medicaid are seeing big budgetary savings without reducing services. This report, prepared by Manatt Health Solutions, analyzes data from eight states, showing $1.8 billion in budget savings by the end of 2015 as a result of Medicaid expansion.
Terms and Definitions Used by States Reporting on Affordable Care Act (ACA) Enrollment
During the initial open enrollment period under the Affordable Care Act, the federal government and states operating state-based exchanges conducted various types of reporting on key indicators of interest to policymakers and the public.
Marketplace Enrollee Survey Item Matrix – Sample Questions
As those interested in conducting surveys to measure the public’s participation and experience in health insurance marketplaces under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) continue to investigate the most effective ways of doing so, access to questions utilized in previously conducted surveys will be very useful.
Impacts of the Affordable Care Act on Health Insurance Coverage in Oregon
Between October 2013 and April 2014 access to health insurance in Oregon expanded in two ways, leading to unprecedented changes in insurance coverage in the state. First, the state extended Medicaid coverage to many previously ineligible low-income adults. Second, the state created a health insurance marketplace that provided a resource where individuals could learn what they are eligible for, explore financial assistance options available to them, and compare commercial plans.
Boosting Enrollment: Lessons Learned from 2013-2014
With the recent conclusion of the initial open enrollment period under the Affordable Care Act, opportunities now exist to examine the experiences and successes of several state-based marketplaces in order to evaluate how they reached consumers and enrolled them in Qualified Health Plans