Compliance
This section focuses on health care compliance and regulations – both national and state – including the ACA. It includes changes in health care law, regulation, and court decisions and their impact on health insurance professionals, employers, and individuals.
"2017 is going to be a catastrophic year for Obamacare for patients," said Trump, saying the public health care exchanges are "going to absolutely implode." He cited rising premiums as a factor. Premiums were steadily rising for all insurance policies for years and experts said the hikes for Obamacare were partly due to them initially being priced artificially low.
On February 24, 2017, a draft House reconciliation bill was leaked to the media. Although I have not seen any claims that it is not authentic, it is dated February 10 and may not be the most recent draft. I have also not seen any assertion that the Congressional Budget Office has concluded an analysis of the bill and found its budgetary consequences to be acceptable to the bill’s sponsors. The draft is, however, consistent with statements that Republican leadership have recently made about their legislative program. Because the draft is the best information we have about the House Republican leadership’s proposals, I offer a summary of its major provisions.
Like many presidents before him, President Trump is pushing a bold budget proposal. But for a business executive used to getting his way, he is likely to find, as his predecessors did, that final budgets often bear little resemblance to the originals after being run through the shredder on Capitol Hill. Here is a look at some of the main issues hanging over the coming budget and spending fight.
The Trump administration will allow insurers and consumers to extend for an additional year individual and small-group health plans that do not comply with the Affordable Care Act's coverage rules.
President Trump said on Saturday that a plan to replace the Affordable Care Act will come "in a couple of weeks."
House Republican leaders on Thursday presented their rank-and-file members with the outlines of their plan to replace the Affordable Care Act, leaning heavily on tax credits to finance individual insurance purchases and sharply reducing federal payments to the 31 states that have expanded Medicaid eligibility.
Representative Kevin McCarthy, the majority leader, keeps a souvenir from a dinner the night before this year’s inauguration behind his desk: an embossed menu autographed by Donald J. Trump. The president-elect was at his table. Mr. McCarthy is not only the second-most powerful Republican in the House — he is also one of the earliest and most earnest supporters of the new president.
As Republicans look at ways to replace or repair the health law, many suggest shrinking the list of services insurers are required to offer in individual and small group plans would reduce costs and increase flexibility. That option came to the forefront last week when Seema Verma, who is slated to run the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in the Trump administration, noted at her confirmation hearing that coverage for maternity services should be optional in those health plans.
HSAs are increasingly gaining traction in the workplace — but primarily for the youngest members of the workforce, the second annual State of Employee Benefits report from Benefitfocus shows.
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.