Month: February 2017
The number of Californians newly signed up for health insurance through Covered California, the state’s insurance marketplace created under the Affordable Care Act, dropped 3 percent compared with last year, according to enrollment figures released by Covered California on Monday.
Provider choice is down. Premiums and cost sharing are up. This is the current state of the healthcare market, Janet Trautwein, executive vice president and CEO of NAHU, on Wednesday told Congress — and it’s unsustainable, she said.
President Trump said Sunday that it could take “sometime into next year” until his ObamaCare replacement plan is ready, a slower timetable than he and other Republicans have put forward in the past.
Two of the top Republicans in Congress on Monday said they are pushing ahead with the plan to begin repealing ObamaCare this spring, despite any confusion caused by President Trump saying the process could spill into next year.
A California lawmaker has introduced a bill that would ban drugmakers from issuing coupons that lower patients’ prescription copayments for certain drugs. The bill by Assembly member Jim Wood, D-Healdsburg, would prohibit distribution of discount coupons for prescription drugs where a cheaper, FDA-approved equivalent exists.
Trump Administration Proposes New Obamacare Regulation That Could Make ‘Special Enrollments’ Tougher
The Trump administration filed notice of a proposed new federal rule on Obamacare — and a person involved in its development says it could tighten up restrictions on people signing up for individual health plans in so-called special enrollment periods.
They are just three little words — "health savings accounts" — but they are generating a lot of buzz as Republicans contemplate plans to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
The biggest health insurers are moving quickly towards to value-based care arrangements, their recent earnings reports show. While Aetna has long-held a goal to reach 75 to 80 percent of its medical spend in value-based relationships by 2020, Aetna's medical spend is now 45 percent tied to value, CEO Mark Bertolini said during last week's fourth quarter earnings call.
The Trump administration and Capitol Hill Republicans are trying to stabilize the individual health insurance market, hoping to keep insurers from canceling plans or raising rates in 2018 as uncertainty builds over what a replacement for Obamacare might look like.
Looming over the upcoming legislative session is the big unknown of whether Congress will repeal the Affordable Care Act and what it would mean for Nevada.