Author: Kalup Alexander

 The pace slowed in the third week of enrollment for 2018 Obamacare individual insurance as nearly 800,000 people signed up through the federal government website HealthCare.gov, down about 75,000 people from the previous week, a U.S. government agency reported on Wednesday.

The Senate Republican plan to use tax legislation to repeal the federal requirement that Americans have health coverage threatens to derail insurance markets in conservative, rural swaths of the country, according to a Los Angeles Times data analysis.

Health insurers fear they will be on the hook for greater healthcare costs if the CMS finalizes its proposal to allow states to define their own essential health benefits starting in 2019.

The percentage of Californians without health insurance reached a record low 6.8 percent during the first six months of 2017, according to new estimates from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Since 2015, applicable large employers (ALEs) have been required by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to offer their full-time employees (and their dependent children) health coverage or face a section 4980H(a) or (b) employer shared responsibility payment (ESRP).*  (For some employers, transition relief delayed this mandate.) Also since 2015, ALEs have been required to prepare, furnish, and file IRS Forms 1094/1095-C. These forms provide the IRS with data it needs to determine if an ALE owes an ESRP. However, while employers addressed these mandates by spending several years grappling with new administrative challenges and worrying about potential penalties, it did not appear that the IRS had actually assessed any ESRPs. That situation just changed.

President Trump’s budget director said Sunday that the White House is open to removing a repeal of the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate from the GOP legislation to overhaul the nation’s tax laws if it becomes a hindrance to the bill’s passage.

 Senator Susan Collins is back in the spotlight as a crucial swing vote in the U.S. Senate as she raises questions about how combining a Republican tax-cut plan with a partial repeal of Obamacare will affect middle-class Americans.

Consumers are getting the word that taxpayer-subsidized health plans are widely available for next year for no monthly premium or little cost, and marketing companies say they're starting to see an impact on sign-ups.

While the Affordable Care Act’s fifth open enrollment season is off to a surprisingly good start, many uninsured people said they weren’t even aware of it, according to a survey released Friday.

SynerMed, a company that manages physician practices serving hundreds of thousands of Medicaid and Medicare patients across California, is planning to shut down amid scrutiny from state regulators and health insurers.