Essential Health Benefits: Balancing Affordability and Adequacy February 3, 2012 Event Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), insurance plans offered through state insurance exchanges as well as non-grandfathered plans offered in the individual and small group markets – will be required to cover a set of health benefits and services called the “essential health benefits” package. Guidance issued…
What’s in There? The New Health Reform Law and Medicare May 7, 2010 Event As part of an ongoing series to explore what is in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, this May 7 briefing sponsored by the Alliance for Health Reform and the Kaiser Family Foundation examines how the reform law affects…
Spending To Survive: Cancer Patients Confront Holes in the Health Insurance System January 30, 2009 Event This report highlights the severe challenges cancer patient may face in paying for life-saving care even when they have private health insurance. Jointly authored by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the American Cancer Society, the report profiles 20 patients and illustrates the potential difficulties people diagnosed with cancer or other…
Uniform Coverage Summaries for Consumers October 1, 2011 Issue Brief This brief explains the proposed federal rule that requires private health plans to provide a short, easy-to-read uniform summary of benefits and coverage to all health insurance applicants and enrollees. The rule, which implements a provision in the Affordable Care Act (ACA), is intended to make it simpler for consumers…
Health Insurance Market Reforms: Guaranteed Issue June 2, 2012 Fact Sheet Guaranteed issue laws require insurance companies to issue a health plan to any applicant – an individual or a group – regardless of the applicant’s health status or other factors. Currently, in most states, insurance companies can deny nongroup coverage to people based on their health status or their medical…
Health Insurance Market Reforms: Rate Review December 11, 2012 Fact Sheet Rate review is the process by which insurance regulators review health plans’ new or renewed rates for insurance policies in order to ensure that the rates charged are based on accurate, verifiable data and realistic projections of health costs. Historically, state insurance departments have conducted rate review, but under the…
Changes in Health Insurance Status over a Two-Year Period May 29, 2010 Issue Brief The ability to maintain health insurance in the face of rising costs and an uncertain economy is a key concern for families and featured prominently in the health reform debate. While the percentage of the population without coverage at any one time changes by only a relatively small amount over…
Kaiser Analysis: Estimated Health Insurance Rebates Under the Health Reform Law Total $1.3 Billion in 2012 April 1, 2012 News Release NEWS RELEASE April 26, 2012 Rebates Expected to Vary Significantly by State MENLO PARK, Calif. – Consumers and businesses are expected to receive an estimated $1.3 billion by this August in rebates from health insurers who spent more on administrative expenses and profits than allowed by the Affordable Care Act…
Pulling It Together: What Do We Want Health Insurance To Be? September 26, 2008 Perspective Trends in the health insurance marketplace show substantial growth in high deductible health plans, especially among smaller firms, where 35% of workers are now covered by plans with a deductible of $1,000 or more. That’s according to our recently released employer health benefits survey, which we have been conducting now…
Poll: 7 in 10 Want the Trump Administration to Make the Affordable Care Act Work Rather Than Make it Fail October 13, 2017 News Release As the Trump administration begins implementing Thursday’s executive order aimed at providing alternatives to the Affordable Care Act’s marketplace plans, a new Kaiser Health Tracking Poll finds a large majority of the public (71%) want President Trump and his administration to do what they can to make the current law…