Author: Kalup Alexander

Roughly 89,000 Nevadans signed up for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act exchange for 2017, about 900 more than in the previous year. The jump occurred amid uncertainty over the fate of the legislation and ran counter to a national downturn in Healthcare.gov enrollments.

The Trump administration proposed new rules on Wednesday to stabilize health insurance markets roiled by efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, by big increases in premiums and by the exodus of major insurers. The move came a day after Humana announced that, starting next year, it would completely withdraw from the public marketplaces created by former President Barack Obama’s signature domestic achievement.

While Congress continues to struggle with how to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act, the Trump administration today unveiled its first regulation aimed at keeping insurers participating in the individual market in 2018.

Humana announced on Tuesday that it would no longer offer health insurance coverage in the state marketplaces created under the federal health care law, becoming the first major insurer to cast a no-confidence vote over selling individual plans on the public exchanges for 2018.

A top House Republican on healthcare said Tuesday that lawmakers are looking to dramatically restructure Medicaid as part of an ObamaCare repeal bill.

National healthcare spending is projected to grow 5.6% annually over the next decade, according to a CMS report published Wednesday by Health Affairs.

The Affordable Care Act’s tax on high-cost employer health plans faced sharp opposition from employers and unions. Now, Republicans are drawing equal fire for ACA replacement proposals that those groups say would have some of the same effects.

CHOICE Administrators announced today the expansion of its Choice Builder® ancillary benefits exchange to include four new MetLife Dental PPO plans. The new options are available to employers with two to 199 employees for coverage effective April 1, 2017, or later. They include three employer-sponsored Dental PPO choices and one voluntary Dental PPO plan.

Republican leaders have a lengthy list of talking points about the shortcomings of the health law. Shortly before his inauguration last month, President Donald Trump said that it “is a complete and total disaster. It’s imploding as we sit.” And they can point to a host of issues, including premium increases averaging more than 20 percent this year, a drop in the number of insurers competing on the Affordable Care Act marketplaces and rising consumer discontent with high deductibles and limited doctor networks.

A leaked draft rule from HHS intended to help stabilize the individual insurance market highlights the narrow limits of what the Trump administration can do on healthcare reform without action by a deeply polarized Congress. HHS reportedly has submitted a proposed rule to the Office of Management and Budget but no details of the rule have been disclosed by either agency. Politico, however, obtained two different draft versions of the rule.