ACA Preventive Services Are Back at the Supreme Court: Kennedy v. Braidwood April 15, 2025 Issue Brief This brief provides an overview of the most recent ACA case under review at the Supreme Court (Kennedy v. Braidwood Management) and discusses the implications of the potential rulings by the high court.
Navigating the Maze: A Look at Patient Cost-Sharing Complexities and Consumer Protections March 28, 2025 Issue Brief This brief focuses on consumers’ understanding of health insurance costs and examines existing federal protections that seek to address barriers to understanding the cost of coverage and care, such as price transparency, self-service price estimator tools, and simplifying cost-sharing designs.
New Rule Proposes Changes to ACA Coverage of Gender-Affirming Care, Potentially Increasing Costs for Consumers March 24, 2025 Issue Brief This brief examines a proposed rule that seeks to change how ACA plans would cover gender affirming care services. If finalized the rule could lead insurers to drop coverage or shift costs to individuals and states, making access to gender affirming care more difficult.
A Backlash Against Health Insurers, Redux March 13, 2025 Perspective In this JAMA Health Forum post, Executive Vice President Larry Levitt recalls the mid-1990s’ public backlash against Health Maintenance Organizations (commonly known as HMOs) – all of which preceded the recent outpouring of health insurance concerns – as well as how consumer protections against coverage restrictions have evolved and fallen short.
Navigating the Maze: A Look at Health Insurance Complexities and Consumer Protections March 3, 2025 Issue Brief This brief discusses how consumers understand what their insurance covers, what to do when coverage for care is denied, and what protections exist to ensure that information is available and coverage determinations are fair, accurate, and timely.
Challenges with Effective Price Transparency Analyses February 25, 2025 Issue Brief Promoting price transparency in health care is a policy approach with bi-partisan support in Congress and the public at large. This analysis examines the vast troves of price transparency data that payers are required and finds unlikely prices, inconsistencies, and other oddities that pose major challenges for efforts to use it to promote competition and drive down prices.
Congressional District Interactive Map: How Much Will ACA Premium Payments Rise if Enhanced Subsidies Expire? February 3, 2025 Issue Brief This analysis and interactive map illustrate how much more enrollees in Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace plans would pay in premiums at the congressional district level if the enhanced subsidies were to expire in 2026 as under current law. The tool presents scenarios for an older couple who would lose subsidy eligibility due to their income level and for a single person with a $31,000 income. It also presents net average premium payment increases in each district in states that use Healthcare.gov.
HealthCare.gov Insurers Denied Nearly 1 in 5 In-Network Claims in 2023, but Information About Reasons is Limited in Public Data January 27, 2025 News Release HealthCare.gov insurers denied nearly one out of every five claims (19%) submitted for in-network services and an even larger share (37%) share of claims for out-of-network services in 2023, a new KFF analysis finds. The analysis examines the main source of publicly available data on claims denials and appeals for…
Claims Denials and Appeals in ACA Marketplace Plans in 2023 January 27, 2025 Issue Brief This brief analyzes federal transparency data released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on claims denials and appeals for non-group qualified health plans (QHPs) offered on HealthCare.gov in 2023. It finds that HealthCare.gov insurers denied nearly one out of every five claims (19%) submitted for in-network services. Information about the reasons for denials is limited, and few consumers appeal claims denials.