AHA recommends policy changes to stabilize individual insurance market

In a statement submitted today to the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee for the fourth in a series of hearings on stabilizing the individual health insurance market, AHA urged Congress to address the major issues contributing to marketplace volatility. Specifically, AHA recommends that Congress and the administration, working with states, consider policy changes to fund Cost-Sharing Reduction subsidies; enforce the individual mandate; create a federal reinsurance program; continue to evaluate and refine the risk-adjustment program; expand federal outreach and enrollment efforts; and support state-level approaches to marketplace stabilization. “Millions of U.S. residents rely on the public marketplaces as their source of health care coverage,” the AHA statement notes. “Without action to address challenges related to unanticipated costs and potential loss of reimbursement for the CSRs, these consumers could lose their health care coverage. We urge Congress to work with the administration to ensure that the marketplaces can continue to provide valuable coverage to consumers in 2018 and beyond.” Witnesses at today’s hearing included Susan Turney M.D., CEO of Marshfield (WI) Clinic Health System, and representatives from Healthy Tennessee, Anthem, Young Invincibles, and the South Carolina Department of Insurance.