On Tuesday morning, a federal appeals court for the case Halbig v. Burwell raised the question of whether premium subsidies should be authorized on the federal exchange in states where the government set up the insurance marketplace. One court ruled that the ACA authorizes subsidies in states that run their own exchange. However, another court ruled that the wording in the ACA is vague and ambiguous. The language used in the document is open because subsidies are essential to fulfilling the goal of the ACA, making healthcare affordable. Will this decision affect Covered California? This decision does not affect California because that is a state run
Affordable Care Act Faces Court Appeal
A recent announcement by the Washington Post revealed that the insurance subsidies that are meant to help millions of Americans pay for health insurance may be considered illegal in three dozen states according to a ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. This is a major component of the healthcare law that is meant to make insurance more affordable. Over 5.4 million people signed up for healthcare coverage on the federal exchange and nearly 87% of them received subsidies. In addition, the US Court of Appeals in Richmond also made a contradictory ruling regarding the legality of the Affordable
Anthem Blue Cross Under Investigation
Anthem Blue Cross is a well-known, major play player in the insurance marketplace. However, the insurance giant is under investigation by the California Department of Managed Health Care. Covered California is looking into the accuracy of Anthem Blue Cross’ provider networks due to a series of complaints by policy holders. This investigation initiated from multiple law suits brought on against Anthem by the consumers including one last June by WellPoint, Inc. What are policy holders upset about? Narrow provider networks Loss of benefits Bait and switch tactics to get consumers with expiring plans to enroll in different coverage where former benefits may no longer be provided without the
Errors in Healthcare Enrollment Eligibility
The Affordable Care Act had a rocky start this past October causing concerns for many regarding the effectiveness and implementation of the program. The multiple website crashes along with the extension of application deadlines, may have resulted in some website and database issues recently reported by a watchdog report. The full report shows that there are 330,000 inconsistencies in consumer reported data that have been unresolved. The website issues from October to December are reportedly the cause of the data problems. The report reveals that there were 2.9 million issues in the healthcare.gov database. However, only 2.6 million of those data inconsistencies have been resolved. So what does this really
5.4 Million People Qualified for a Healthcare Subsidy
A recent report has been released that disclosed information relating to the average cost for healthcare paid by the federal government as well as an individual who qualified for a subsidy.To qualify for a government subsidy, total income must be up to 400% of the poverty line ($45,960 for an individual and $94,200 for a family of four). 87% of people who signed up for healthcare under the federal exchange qualified for subsidies meaning that 5.4 million people across 36 states were eligible to receive federal funding towards their health care costs. The total number of residents in DC who qualified for a federal subsidy
Health Insurance Rates for 2015 Unknown
With the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, insurers are unsure of how the new rates will impact their bottom line. It is predicted that the rates in 2015 will increase but it is unknown as to how much they will increase by. The increase will depend primarily on the number of people enrolled in the Affordable Care Act and their medical needs. While the 2014 rates are finalized, insurers must submit their rate increase requests to the federal government in late May or early June for 2015. However, this task is challenging to many of the insurers since they don’t understand much of the
Obamacare Enrollment Numbers
A report was finally released by the Department of Health and Human Services detailing the number of people who enrolled in the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare). According to the report, 8 million people enrolled in Obamacare between October 1, 2013 through March 3, 2014. More importantly, the report also revealed demographical information about the enrollees. Demographic Insights from the Report: 8 million+ people signed up for insurance under the Affordable Care Act There were more female enrollees than males (4.3 million+ females and 3.6 million+ males) The majority of people who enrolled were between the ages of 18-34 followed by 55-64 85%
California Took the Lead in Implementing the ACA
According to California Healthline, California was one of the leaders in implementing the Affordable Care Act through the Covered California exchange program. Within the first open enrollment period, California had the highest number of sign ups along with Medicaid enrollments.That’s not to say that it wasn’t a bumpy start with the website issues. However, California’s early preparations did lead to a better growth rate at the end of the enrollment period compared to other state run exchanges. What lead to this success? California focused efforts on enrolling people in Medi-Cal (more than 600,000 state residents received coverage through this expansion) $200 million dollars was spent
How will Single Doctor Medical Practices Be Affected By Obamacare?
It is uncertain whether the Affordable Care Act will actually help or hinder our country’s efforts at creating a better health program for its citizens. However, recent information has revealed that the Affordable Care Act may be hurting small businesses and single doctor medical practices. Many single doctor medical practices have been forced to shut down their businesses due to high costs and have started working with bigger practices to remain profitable. What has caused this? The high inflation rate of Medicare procedures has caused an Escondido community doctor to consider giving up his practice. While only 72, Doug questions whether he can afford to
Confusion with the Affordable Care Act
With the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, there has been some widespread confusion among San Diegans about what the new plans entail and which providers people can see. Similar to many other locations across the nation, provider access is more limited, especially for individual policies. Companies like Health Net have decreased the number of individual providers compared with their employer benefit plans due to costs and other other limitations. In San Diego, Health Net has only 204 doctors in their provider network for the Covered California individual health plans. Furthermore, recent news revealed that only 30-35% of San Diego doctors will be participating in