Consumer Protection

With the inauguration of President Biden and Democrats holding a slim majority in Congress, policymakers are likely to consider whether and how to reverse various health policy regulations issued by the Trump Administration.

In this perspective published by the Washington Post, KFF Executive Vice President for Health Policy Larry Levitt explains why the popular Affordable Care Act provisions that ensure people with pre-existing conditions can access affordable health insurance can’t easily be preserved if other related provisions are overturned.

Facing a challenge now before the Supreme Court, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) included provisions to protect people with pre-existing conditions from discrimination in the individual employment market. This post explains what pre-existing conditions are and the different estimates for the number of people who have them.

Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act prohibits discrimination based on race, color, national origin, sex, age, and disability in health programs and activities receiving federal funds. Here are the significant ways HHS’s final rule would narrow the scope of this regulation.

With unemployment claims rising amid the COVID-19 crisis, this post examines options for people who lose job-based coverage and steps policymakers could take to smooth their transitions.

In an Axios column, Drew Altman previews new data highlighting that people with critical health issues are especially vulnerable to these bills. 

Ahead of the annual Affordable Care Act (ACA) open enrollment period, the time during which consumers can shop for health plans or renew existing coverage, KFF has updated and expanded its searchable collection of more than 300 Frequently Asked Questions about open enrollment, the health insurance marketplaces and the ACA.…

A short fact sheet provides information about short-term health insurance policies and how they differ from ACA-compliant plans. 

This analysis estimates that almost 54 million people – or 27% of all adults under 65 —have pre-existing health conditions that would likely have made them uninsurable in the individual markets that existed in most states before the Affordable Care Act. Almost half (45%) of non-elderly families include at least one adult with such a pre-existing condition. The analysis also includes estimates by age, state and gender.

KFF is pleased to announce that Kaiser Health News (KHN), its editorially independent health news service, won a top prize in the 13th annual Barlett & Steele Awards for Investigative Journalism.