Every month for years now, the Centers for Medicare & Medicare Services (CMS) has published a monthly press release with a breakout of total Medicare, Medicaid & CHIP enrollment; the most recent one was posted in late February, and ran through November 2022.
It was in early 2021 that Congressional Democrats passed & President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), which among other things dramatically expanded & enhanced the original premium subsidy formula of the Affordable Care Act, finally bringing the financial aid sliding income scale up to the level it should have been in the first place over a decade earlier.
In addition to beefing up the subsidies along the entire 100 - 400% Federal Poverty Level (FPL) income scale, the ARPA also eliminated the much-maligned "Subsidy Cliff" at 400% FPL, wherein a household earning even $1 more than that had all premium subsidies cut off immediately, requiring middle-class families to pay full price for individual market health insurance policies.
Here's what the original ACA premium subsidy formula looked like compared to the current, enhanced subsidy formula:
The Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Office of the Health Insurance Marketplace (OHIM) will release biweekly updates on plan selections through CoverME.gov, Maine’s Health Insurance Marketplace.
Plan selections provide a snapshot of activity by new and returning consumers who have selected a plan for 2025. “Plan selections” become “enrollments” once consumers have paid their first monthly premium to begin insurance. These numbers are subject to change as consumers may modify or cancel plans after their initial selection.
The deadline to select a plan for coverage beginning January 1, 2025 is December 15, 2024. Consumers who select a plan between December 16, 2024 and January 15, 2025 will have coverage beginning February 1, 2025.
Biden-Harris Administration Announces Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Proposals that Aim to Improve Care and Access for Enrollees
Today, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is proposing actions in the Medicare Advantage (MA) and Medicare Part D prescription drug programs to continue to strengthen protections and access to care for people with Medicare. The Contract Year (CY) 2026 MA and Part D proposed rule aims to hold MA and Part D plans more accountable for delivering high-quality coverage so that people with Medicare are connected to the care they need when they need it.
Covered California announced the first-year results of its first-in-the nation health plan accountability program, the Quality Transformation Initiative(QTI), today at its board meeting.
The QTI — aimed at improving health care outcomes and reducing disparities for members — was created with input from consumer advocates, health care providers and health insurance companies. It was developed in collaboration with the Department of Health Care Services and CalPERS.
The QTI establishes direct and substantial financial incentives (up to 1 percent of premium in the first year, rising to 4 percent of premium in future years) for all Covered California health insurance companies by requiring payments for failing to meet specified benchmarks for a focused, meaningful set of health-outcome measures. These equity-centered outcome measures include blood pressure and diabetes control, colorectal cancer screening and childhood immunizations.
Now is a great time to sign up for health and dental insurance
Open enrollment now through Jan. 15; 2024 election results do not affect 2025 coverage
Open enrollment on Washington Healthplanfinder™, the state’s marketplace for private health and dental insurance, is going strong and coverage for 2025 is unchanged by the results of the 2024 election. Through Washington Healthplanfinder, operated by Washington Health Benefit Exchange (Exchange), Washingtonians can choose from a variety of plans available in all regions across the state and access more savings than ever before.
Yep, my wife & I screwed up royally. Yes, I know: I'm "The ACA Guy" and yes, it's incredibly embarrassing to tell this story, but I'm doing so in the hopes of helping others avoid making the same mistake.
It's been several years since we enrolled in an ACA policy ourselves via HealthCare.Gov, since we were enrolled in my wife's student plan up until recently (she returned to college to get her master's degree). The last few times we were able to enroll or renew our policies without any issues, so we assumed it wouldn't be an issue this time.
However, there seem to have been a few changes to some of the questions during the application process, and one of them threw us for a loop.
In the household income section of the application process, Healthcare.Gov asks both how much you expect to earn this month specifically (November 2024) as well as how much you expect to earn for all of 2025.
It was the first of these questions which is what caused the problem for us.
You see, both my wife and I are self-employed, which means we have highly variable incomes--we may earn $10,000 one month but not earn anything the next.
