Inflation Reduction Act

In August 2022, President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act (passed with into law with purely Democratic votes).

While the IRA included a long list of landmark provisions, in addition to the critical upgraded ACA premium subsidies which are unfortunately set to expire at the end of 2025, other healthcare-related ones include:

 The 2025 ACA Open Enrollment Period (OEP) officially begins on November 1st.

This is the best OEP ever for the ACA for several reasons:

• The expanded/enhanced premium subsidies first introduced in 2021 via the American Rescue Plan, which make premiums more affordable for those who already qualified while expanding eligibility to millions who weren't previously eligible, are continuing through the end of 2025 via the Inflation Reduction Act;

• A dozen states are either launching, continuing or expanding their own state-based subsidy programs to make ACA plans even more affordable for their enrollees;

• 100,000 or more DACA recipients are finally eligible to enroll in ACA exchange plans & receive financial assistance!*

*Note: There's still some uncertainty about this, as 19 Republican Attorneys General have filed a lawsuit to block this, and oral arguments were heard just a week or so ago, so it's conceivable that an injunction will be placed before November 1st.

Update 12/09/24: As expected, a federal court has shot down the eligibility of DACA recipients to enroll in ACA exchange coverage in the 19 states involved in the lawsuit. In theory the roughly 2/3 of DACA recipients living in the other 31 states +DC should still be eligible.

Update 12/19/24: OK, never mind: Another federal court has put a stay on the DACA enrollment injunction, so for the moment DACA recipients can enroll in every state.

Update 12/23/24: Rhode Island has extended their 2025 Open Enrollment period all the way out through the end of February due to the nasty security breach of RIBridges, their social services IT system. Anyone who enrolls thru 2/28/25 will have their coverage made retroactive to January 1st.

And remember, millions of people will be eligible for zero premium comprehensive major medical policies.

If you've never enrolled in an ACA healthcare policy before, or if you looked into it a few years back but weren't impressed, please give it another shot now. Thanks to these major improvements it's a whole different ballgame.

Here's some important things to know when you #GetCovered for 2025:

via Pennie:

Congress Urged to Act Now to Prevent Increase in Health Coverage Costs For Pennsylvanians

The enhanced premium tax credits from the American Rescue Plan and the Inflation Reduction Act have placed high-quality health coverage within reach for hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians. Unless Congress extends these savings, many Pennsylvanians will lose the coverage that protects their health and financial security.

Pennsylvania – September 11, 2024 – Yesterday, Devon Trolley, Executive Director of Pennie – PA’s official health insurance marketplace – and Chairman of the Pennie Board, Michael Humphreys, issued a letter to Pennsylvania’s representatives in Congress strongly urging them to act now to extend the enhanced premium tax credits that dramatically reduce the cost of health coverage through Pennie for hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians.

I'm obviously a major proponent of making the enhanced ACA premium subsidies originally included in the American Rescue Plan (and later extended by another three years by the Inflation Reduction Act) permanent...or at the very least bumped out by another few years.

At the same time, I'm not naive enough to think that there's any realistic chance of that happening before January given the current makeup of the House of Representatives.

Even so, healthcare reform advocacy organizations like Families USA are making the strongest case they can for getting Congress to extend the subsidies for at least one year as soon as possible for practical reasons. Via Amy Lotven of Inside Health Policy:

The official 2024 ACA Open Enrollment Period (OEP) ended last night in most states, but millions of Americans are still eligible to #GetCovered!

This is the best OEP ever for the ACA for several reasons:

• The expanded/enhanced premium subsidies first introduced in 2021 via the American Rescue Plan, which make premiums more affordable for those who already qualified while expanding eligibility to millions who weren't previously eligible, are continuing through 2025 via the Inflation Reduction Act;

• A dozen states are either launching or expanding their own state-based subsidy programs to make ACA plans even more affordable for their enrollees;

• Millions more Americans who weren't previously eligible for ACA subsidies (even with the expanded ARP/IRA enhancements) are now eligible via the Biden Administration's closure of the so-called "Family Glitch."

And remember, millions of people will be eligible for zero premium comprehensive major medical policies.

If you've never enrolled in an ACA healthcare policy before, or if you looked into it a few years back but weren't impressed, please give it another shot now. Thanks to these major improvements it's a whole different ballgame.

Here's some important things to know when you #GetCovered for 2024:

via U.S. News:

Managing diabetes will be a less expensive proposition for more Americans in 2024.

Sanofi has officially joined Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly in lowering the cost of insulin to $35 a month for many patients. The three drug makers are also drastically lowering the list prices for their insulin products.

The price-cutting moves were first announced last spring, but some of them didn’t take effect until Jan. 1.

...Over 8 million Americans need insulin to survive, but up to a quarter of those patients haven't been able to afford the medication and have dangerously rationed doses, according to the ADA.

Now, thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, Medicare enrollees pay no more than $35 a month for their insulin prescriptions.

The 2024 ACA Open Enrollment Period (OEP) is STILL ongoing in 49 states +DC.

This is the best OEP ever for the ACA for several reasons:

• The expanded/enhanced premium subsidies first introduced in 2021 via the American Rescue Plan, which make premiums more affordable for those who already qualified while expanding eligibility to millions who weren't previously eligible, are continuing through 2025 via the Inflation Reduction Act;

• A dozen states are either launching or expanding their own state-based subsidy programs to make ACA plans even more affordable for their enrollees;

• Millions more Americans who weren't previously eligible for ACA subsidies (even with the expanded ARP/IRA enhancements) are now eligible via the Biden Administration's closure of the so-called "Family Glitch."

And remember, millions of people will be eligible for zero premium comprehensive major medical policies.

If you've never enrolled in an ACA healthcare policy before, or if you looked into it a few years back but weren't impressed, please give it another shot now. Thanks to these major improvements it's a whole different ballgame.

Here's some important things to know when you #GetCovered for 2024:

via the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS):

For the first time, Medicare is able to directly negotiate the prices of prescription drugs due to President Biden’s prescription drug law, the Inflation Reduction Act. Today, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure issued the following statement on the announcement that the drug companies that manufacture all 10 drugs selected for the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program for the first cycle have chosen to participate in the Negotiation Program. The negotiations with participating drug companies for the selected drugs will occur in 2023 and 2024 with the negotiated prices effective beginning in 2026. 

Yesterday the U.S. Census Bureau published new reports on Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States as of 2022. Obviously all three of these are extremely important and interact closely with each other, but given that my focus is healthcare policy, I'm going to stick with the health insurance coverage portion.

According to the 2023 Current Population Survey Annual Social & Economic Supplement (CPS ASEC):

...92.1% of the U.S. population had health insurance coverage for all or part of 2022 (compared to 91.7% in 2021). An estimated 25.9 million or 7.9% of people did not have health insurance at any point during 2022, according to the 2023 Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement (CPS ASEC). That compares to 27.2 million or 8.3% of people who did not have health insurance at any point during 2021.

via the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS):

Inflation Reduction Act Continues to Lower Out-of-Pocket Prescription Drug Costs for Drugs with Price Increases Above Inflation

• CMS announces savings for some people with Medicare on 34 Part B prescription drugs

A continuing key priority of the Biden-Harris Administration is lowering prescription drug costs for seniors and families. Today, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced the list of 34 prescription drugs for which Part B beneficiary coinsurances may be lower between October 1 – December 31, 2023. Some people with Medicare who take these drugs may save between $1 and $618 per average dose starting October 1, 2023, depending on their individual coverage. Through the Inflation Reduction Act, President Biden and his Administration are lowering prescription drug costs for millions of American seniors and their families.