It’s no secret: An emergency room visit for a heart attack or broken leg costs a pretty penny.

Even health insurers that don't expect many of their plan members to drop insurance coverage after the individual mandate penalty is zeroed out may still have to raise individual market premiums in 2019. That's because their payments from the ACA's risk-adjustment program will change thanks to the mandate loss.

Federal officials will not block insurance companies from again using a workaround to cushion a steep rise in health premiums caused by President Donald Trump’s cancellation of a program established under the Affordable Care Act, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar announced Wednesday.

Alex M. Azar II, the secretary of health and human services, denied on Wednesday that Trump administration policies were driving up health insurance costs, which many experts expect to surge again in 2019.

Earlier this month, the Internal Revenue Service announced in Revenue Procedure 2018-30the 2019 limits for contributions to health savings accounts and definitional limits for high deductible health plans. These inflation adjustments are provided for under Internal Revenue Code Section 223.

California's General Assembly has passed a bill to become the first state to extend Medicaid coverage to immigrants, regardless of their status.