Insights Column

How to Improve Marketplaces to Provide Consumers with Crucial Health Insurance Information

As we move into the last two months of the open enrollment period, government officials and advocates are thinking about how to better reach consumers and help them select a plan to enroll in. One way...

The Affordable Care Act is a Historic Opportunity to Advance Health Care Justice for African-Americans

As we celebrate Black History Month and remember the contributions of African-Americans throughout our nation's history, it's important to also focus on the work that still lies ahead to achieve racia...

How The Affordable Care Act’s Risk Adjustment, Reinsurance, and Risk Corridor Provisions Protect Consumers

Lately, the media have been covering three provisions—risk adjustment, reinsurance, and risk corridors—that were created by the Affordable Care Act. The new health law’s opponents have been high...

Demographics of People with a Pre-existing Health Condition

Under the Affordable Care Act, no American can be denied coverage, charged a higher monthly premium, or sold a policy that excludes coverage of important health services just because he or she has a p...

Momentum for Buying Health Insurance Continues to Grow

There are now 24 days until March 31—the last day to buy health insurance through the marketplace. As of the end of January, 3.3 million people had signed up for coverage, and the Obama Administra...

Federal Laws Prohibit Government from Using Health Insurance Application Information for Deportation

As the March 31 deadline approaches for enrolling in health insurance in the marketplace, we would like to address one concern that could be unnecessarily holding back hundreds of thousands of familie...

Independents Want Improvements in the Affordable Care Act, Not Repeal

Americans want Congress to improve the Affordable Care Act, not repeal it, according to two recent polls from Kaiser Tracking Health and Garin Hart Yang Research Group. But a special election in F...

Women in the Coverage Gap Routinely Go Without Needed Health Care Services

This post was written by guest blogger, Danielle Garrett, Policy Analyst, National Women’s Law Center, dgarrett@nwlc.org. Access to affordable health coverage is important for everyone, but i...

Why Consumer Protections are Important to the Direct Enrollment Process

Health insurers and web brokers who follow certain federal rules (relating to topics such as protecting consumer information and displaying standardized disclaimers) are allowed to directly enroll c...

How to Find out If Your Employer’s Health Plan Is Good Enough

On March 5, the Department of the Treasury and IRS issued final rules on how employers report their employees’ health insurance. This was the last of a series of rules needed for implementing the re...