Insurance Making a Summer Splash in Hot Washington, D.C. — Senate Votes to Start Healthcare Debate and Trump Signs Covered Agreement with EU

Amidst the sizzling news of investigations and conversations about North Korea and terrorism, insurance is making its own headlines in the nation’s capital this summer. Congress is debating repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the Trump Administration has signed off on the Covered Agreement with the European Union.

Most of the insurance news out of Washington, D.C. is centered on Republican efforts to repeal and replace the ACA. Several packages are currently on the table. In May 2017, the House of Representatives …

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Recent Court Decisions Show Fight Over ACA is Alive and Well

The battle over the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is heating up again with two recent high-profile decisions. In the first case, the U.S. House of Representatives as an institution sued the executive branch over actions taken by the executive during the implementation of the ACA. This case is unique because it addresses the broader question of whether the legislative branch has the authority to sue the executive branch over how the executive implements statutes.

In U.S. House of Representatives v. Burwell, the U.S. House …

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Money Trouble: Some Health Insurance CO-OPs in Financial Trouble

Much of the focus on health insurers under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has centered on larger health insurance companies. In an effort to expand the number of health plans available to the public, the ACA also created the Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan (CO-OP) Program. The program is administered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The ACA further directed HHS to make loans to these CO-OPs to assist with their establishment and …

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SCOTUS: Affordable Care Act Subsidies Apply to Federal Exchanges

On June 25, 2015, in a 6-3 opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts, the United States Supreme Court held that the subsidies available in the Affordable Care Act apply to participants in both state and federal healthcare exchanges. A key component of the Affordable Care Act (i.e., the part that helps make this insurance affordable) is tax subsidies for those who qualify under the income requirements stated in the Act. Language in this provision, according to the petitioners and the dissent, appeared to limit …

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Tracking the Uncertainty of the 2016 ACA Health Insurance Rates

Health insurers have begun submitting their proposals for approval of next year’s health insurance rates. For hundreds of Affordable Care Act (ACA) plans, the proposed rates are up by more than 10 percent with insurers seeking increases of upwards of 49 percent for some products. Insurers have cited to increases in drug costs and the receipt of more accurate data on their insureds in support of the proposed rates. Between now and October 2015, when the final rates are published, federal and state regulators will …

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