2010

Rate Review: Holding Health Plans Accountable for Your Premium Dollars

When health insurance companies want to raise premiums, states use a process called "rate review" to decide whether proposed increases are justified. Many states have limited authority to prevent unre...

Medical Loss Ratios: Making Sure Premium Dollars Go to Health Care—Not Profits

A health insurance company’s “medical loss ratio” (MLR) is the share of premium dollars it spends on health care rather than administrative costs, marketing, and profits. We can protect consumer...

How the Affordable Care Act Helps Communities of Color

The Affordable Care Act is designed to expand health coverage, improve quality, and reduce costs. The new law also provides a critical foundation for addressing racial and ethnic health disparities. ...

Buyer Beware: Unlicensed Insurance Plans Prey on Health Care Consumers

Three companies have been liquidated by court order for scamming health care consumers. Insurance departments in some states have found that these companies sold unauthorized, unlicensed health insura...

How CHIPRA Improves Coverage for Children

This series covers everything you want to know about CHIPRA (the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009), who it affects, and how. Learn how CHIPRA: allows legal immig...

Grandfathered Plans under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

A "grandfathered" plan is a health insurance plan that existed before the Affordable Care Act passed on March 23, 2010. Grandfathered plans do not need to meet the same criteria as plans sold to peopl...

No more out-of-network E.R. bills

A man falls off the roof while cleaning the gutters. His wife, panic-stricken, hops in the car and speeds down the highway to get him medical attention as quickly as possible while her husband writhes...

Happy holidays to you

If we had to describe this year in one word, it would be “historic.” Although we had some bumps along the way, Congress finally stood up for the American people and passed the Affordable Care A...