Higher premiums and penalties have made shopping for Obamacare plans more confusing this year. Navigator programs, a resource for consumers, lost about 90% of federal funding across more than two dozen states earlier this year. How’s open enrollment going so far? “Chaotic,” says one remaining ACA navigator.| Tradeoffs
For the first time since the ACA was enacted, political developments are pushing congressional Democrats into direct negotiations with the GOP over key features. An option that is not on either party’s radar but should be is helping more low-wage workers stay in employer plans. The post Congress Should Look to Employer Health Coverage to Help Low-Wage Workers appeared first on American Enterprise Institute - AEI.| American Enterprise Institute – AEI
Many of the 24 million working and middle-class Americans insured through the Affordable Care Act may forgo insurance if their bills multiply. The post Barring a Sharp Shift, Health Insurance Costs Will Skyrocket appeared first on .|
Shutdown lasted 43 days. The post Federal government reopens appeared first on Washington Blade: LGBTQ News, Politics, LGBTQ Rights, Gay News.| Washington Blade: LGBTQ News, Politics, LGBTQ Rights, Gay News
It’s been nine months since a top senator warned that the state’s health care system is “falling apart,” and the slew of federal policy changes since then have only made the outlook darker — in the process amplifying calls for policymakers to act.| CommonWealth Beacon
A confluence of challenges points to very hard times ahead for the Massachusetts health care system.| CommonWealth Beacon
The record-breaking government shutdown is almost at an end after the House voted for a new spending deal late Wednesday night, sending the bill to President Donald Trump’s desk after both Democrats and Republicans voted to reopen the government. In a 222 to 209 vote, the House passed a short-term, Senate-passed continuing resolution to fund […]| Washington Examiner
This analysis documents average deductibles for Affordable Care Act Marketplace plans available on Healthcare.gov in 2026 for all metal tiers, including silver plans after cost-sharing reductions are applied, as well as trend data since 2014.| KFF
As the government shutdown continues, public support remains high for extending the enhanced ACA tax credits set to expire at the end of the year, with three quarters (74%) of the public in favor of extending them, a new KFF Health Tracking Poll finds.| KFF
As the government shutdown continues, this poll finds that public support remains high for extending the enhanced ACA tax credits set to expire at the end of the year. Three quarters of the public favor of extending them, though support among Republicans has dipped since September. Most Democrats want a Congressional budget deal to include an extension of the tax credits.| KFF
This analysis compares ACA Marketplace costs to employer-sponsored health insurance costs and finds that individual market premiums have become more similar to employer-sponsored premiums over time. In 2024, individual market insurance premiums averaged $540 per member per month, slightly below the average $587 per member per month premium for fully-insured employer coverage.| KFF
WASHINGTON — The Senate took the first step to end the government shutdown on Sunday after a group of moderate Democrats agreed to proceed without a guaranteed extension of health care subsidies, angering many in their caucus who say Americans want them to continue the fight. In a test vote that is the first in […] The post Senate moves toward ending government shutdown appeared first on Key Biscayne Independent.| Key Biscayne Independent
As the shutdown of the federal government extends beyond 30 days, the key reasons become apparent: it is about healthcare costs and who pays them. The debate over temporarily expanded healthcare premium subsidies and Medicaid eligibility is really about who pays what. You see, the notion that the Affordable Care Act (often referred to as […]| Idaho Freedom
The post Healthcare and the “perfect storm” on the horizon appeared first on Mennonite Church USA.| Mennonite Church USA
A federal district court in Mississippi overturned Biden-era regulations that sought to extend mandates under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to include transgender health care. Known as Section 1557, the regulations extended protections against sex discrimination to include gender-affirming health care. U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola, Jr., in a brief, two-page ruling, sided with Tennessee […] The post Kansas, 14 other states victorious as court strikes down ACA’s transgender care mandat...| The Sentinel
'Their constituents are the ones that are going to suffer.' The post Maxwell Frost slams Mario Díaz-Balart, Carlos Giménez, María Elvira Salazar for silence on health care premiums appeared first on Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government..| Florida Politics – Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.
Illinois Newsroom - With open enrollment on the Affordable Care Act Marketplace starting on Nov. 1, local health advocates are warning that premiums for 2026 plans could more than double unless Congress extends subsidies that reduce those costs. The post Health insurance costs are rising as financial assistance declines. Here’s how C-U could be affected appeared first on IPM Newsroom.| IPM Newsroom
A new fact sheet from the White House discusses a “New Benefit Option” for employers to offer fertility benefits to employees in the future as a standalone plan, regardless of if benefits for fertility treatments are also included under an employer health plan. The post Fertility Treatment Benefits as Excepted Benefits Coming for Employers appeared first on Word on Benefits.| Word on Benefits
The ACA Marketplace Open Enrollment season begins November 1, and with it comes looming changes to the enhanced premium tax credits, increases in out-of-pocket premium payments, new Marketplace eligibility rules, and more. Read our analysis of what these and other changes could mean for new and returning enrollees.| KFF
Experts discuss what the loss of Obamacare subsidies means to patients and costs within the ACA insurance marketplace.| Tradeoffs
As Marketplace Open Enrollment nears, policy changes could leave millions of people facing substantially higher premiums and coverage loss, which could lead more consumers to purchase less expensive and less comprehensive coverage through short-term health plans. KFF analyzes short-term health policies sold by nine large insurers in 36 states, examining premiums, cost sharing, covered benefits, and coverage limitations and comparing them to ACA Marketplace plans.| KFF
Earlier this month, 1.2 million Georgians were able to log into Georgia Access to check their 2026 health insurance premiums. A family of four in Chatham County discovered they’d be paying nearly $20,000 more per year for the lowest cost plan. Not $20,000 total. Twenty thousand dollars more than last year. That’s a used car. […]| The Georgia Sun
60,000 West Virginians could lose ACA subsidies, sending premiums sky-high. Lawmakers are staying quiet.| Mountain State Spotlight
Excerpts of a live conversation with two top health economists about how extra federal support has helped millions of Americans access health insurance, and what would happen if that aid went away. The post BONUS: What Happens if Obamacare Subsidies Shrink? appeared first on Tradeoffs.| Tradeoffs
In his latest column, President and CEO Dr. Drew Altman shows how spiking premiums, which may come if the enhanced ACA tax credits are not extended, will hit people in the context of their family budgets, alongside rising costs for food, housing and utilities. For some families, their new health care costs could far exceed what they pay for food, affecting their economic security and potentially their vote.| KFF
In August, 16 U.S. Senators asked CHIR to review health insurers’ filings to state regulators supporting their 2026 rate requests. Drawing on an analysis of 178 Marketplace plan filings, CHIR examines the double-digit premium increases many insurers are proposing for 2026.| CHIRblog
It’s all about pretending a boatload of federal cash helps the free market.| The American Prospect
With a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers, Fitzpatrick and Tom Suozzi introduced a bill that aims to prevent millions of Americans from losing health coverage.| The Independence
In his latest column, KFF’s President and CEO Dr. Drew Altman looks at why the issue of extending the enhanced ACA tax credits has languished in Congress without clear direction, despite its importance to the 24 million people who get their coverage in the ACA Marketplaces today and the potentially significant role the issue could play in the midterms if the credits are not extended.| KFF
Marketplace enrollees are facing threats to their health coverage and healthcare affordability as a result of the recently enacted budget reconciliation bill. CHIR expert Karen Davenport discusses the impending expiration of enhanced premium tax credits, which would drastically compound the coverage losses of H.R. 1 for American consumers.| CHIRblog
September 8, 2025 On July 4, 2025, Donald Trump signed the cartoonishly-named “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBA) into law. This budget bill creates a massive regressive transfer of wealth through its harmful provisions – these provisions impose massive cuts to programs that benefit lower- and middle-income individuals in order to fund tax cuts to […]| Champaign County Health Care Consumers
Duncan Smith looks at changing governmental priorities and their impact on health and health/medical insurance — and how we can respond.| Mennonite Church USA
Komen patient navigator Elizabeth Chavez shares how she and her team of navigators in Komen’s Patient Care Center work to reduce the financial barriers to care within the breast cancer community.| Susan G. Komen®
The first of numerous federal policies that reverse recent coverage gains under the the Affordable Care Act are scheduled to go into effect on August 25, but two lawsuits have been filed to block them. CHIR's Sabrina Corlette reviews the imminent policy changes, their impact, and the legal challenges to watch.| CHIRblog
The recently enacted federal budget law is set to significantly roll back health insurance coverage for millions. CHIR experts Billy Dering, Amy Killelea and Christine Monahan discuss what this means for people with insulin-requiring diabetes.| CHIRblog
For Congress, work on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act is done. But in state capitols, the work has not yet begun. Many of the tax changes in the federal reconciliation act flow through to state tax codes—automatically in some states, and subject to an update in states’ Internal Revenue Code conformity date in others.| Tax Foundation
In his latest Beyond the Data column, President and CEO Dr. Drew Altman discusses whether Democrats can make the Medicaid and ACA cuts a winning political issue before the midterm elections and before most people feel the cuts.| KFF
Officials warn that sweeping federal cuts to Medicaid, food aid and clean energy programs could unravel key safety nets across the state.| North Carolina Health News
In an attempt to continue tracking the latest actions of the federal government’s legislative and executive branches affecting the healthcare industry since the last article was released in March, this article summarizes recent events in Washington and the impact of these changes on providers and patients.| QuickRead | News for the Financial Consulting Professional
In a new column, Dr. Drew Altman, KFF’s President and CEO, discusses the limits of polling on policy, and what we have learned over more than 30 years of polling about how giving people more information and arraying tradeoffs can change opinion, including on the health policy changes and funding cuts in the current reconciliation bill.| KFF
In his latest column, President and CEO Drew Altman discusses how, with nearly half, or about 10 million MAGA supporters and Republicans receiving coverage through the ACA Marketplaces, the policy changes and cuts being considered by Republicans to the Marketplaces will directly affect their own voters. Altman writes: "Republicans are no longer interested in repealing the ACA but seem comfortable shrinking it significantly if they can, so long as they don’t touch protections for pre-existin...| From Drew Altman Archive | KFF
In his latest column, President and CEO Drew Altman shows how proposals contained in the House reconciliation bill could result in a one-third reduction in ACA Marketplace enrollment. “While all eyes are on the big Medicaid cuts being proposed in the House,” he writes, “significant changes are also being proposed that together would dramatically reduce enrollment in the ACA Marketplaces.”| From Drew Altman Archive | KFF
In his latest column, KFF President and CEO Drew Altman discusses the history of the battles over the ACA’s provisions that were designed to expand coverage for the uninsured, which helps explain the effort to cut federal funding for the Medicaid expansion today. The real underlying issues, he says, are the same divisions that have always plagued the debate about covering the uninsured.| From Drew Altman Archive | KFF
In his latest column, president and CEO Drew Altman discusses why debate about extending the ACA enhanced tax credits set to expire this year has been slow to develop, and why it could matter to Republicans politically if the tax credits are not extended.| From Drew Altman Archive | KFF
In his latest column, KFF President and CEO Drew Altman examines the implications of Secretary Kennedy’s reorganization of HHS and why it’s a sharp break from past efforts to reorganize the department.| From Drew Altman Archive | KFF
KFF’s president and CEO Drew Altman writes in a new column about the factors driving the biggest health policy decisions now—how to pay for tax cuts and whether President Trump wants another big fight about health care.| From Drew Altman Archive | KFF
The Affordable Care Act turned fifteen years old this month and looks exactly the same as it did when it became law.| RVer Insurance Exchange
A proposed federal rule issued this week would, if finalized, bring wide-ranging changes for the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance Marketplace, including a shorter open enrollment period in all states.| healthinsurance.org
Signups for Obamacare on Minnesota’s official health insurance marketplace, MNsure, hit a record 167,163 people for coverage in 2025.| Mshale
As of the 2025 plan year, there will be 20 fully state-run health insurance marketplaces (SBMs), three state-based marketplaces that use the federal platform (SBM-FP), and 28 fully federally run marketplaces. Three of the SBMs had an SBM-FP model in 2021, but transitioned to their own enrollment platforms as of the 2022 plan year. Virginia joined them in the fall of 2023, and Georgia will also be running its own exchange platform by the fall of 2024. Illinois has enacted legislation to creat...| healthinsurance.org
The Medicaid “unwinding” led to fears that the number of people without insurance would spike. But it also coincided with moves in more than a dozen states to expand health coverage for lower-income people, including children, pregnant women and the incarcerated.| Stateline
Federal penalties for being uninsured no longer apply since 2019, but some states are implementing their own coverage mandates. Find more info here.| healthinsurance.org
Learn how the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) improved health coverage and made it more affordable through income-based subsidies.| healthinsurance.org
