Pane_1_Col_12_Title

Health Insurance

Pane_1_Col_6_A

Health Policy Snapshot: Lowering Health Care Costs for Consumers

This policy snapshot includes state policy options, state examples, federal action and key resource on lowering health care costs for consumers—such as improving health insurance affordability and leveraging price transparency.

Pane_1_Col_6_B

health care woman and doctor

Bringing Health Care Prices to Light

Consumers are often in the dark when it comes to health care prices—and they’re not the only ones. Policymakers, employers and researchers frequently lack access to robust price data, which can act as a barrier for assessing health care markets and controlling costs.

HEALTH INSURANCE

Health Insurance

All Documents

Pane_4_Col_4_8

Overview

Back in 2013 some 197 million Americans had commercial or private market health insurance, through employers, individual purchases or policies with public subsidies. Since then federal health reform has added to existing state regulation, mandates and consumer protections. ACA-authorized Health insurance Marketplaces or Exchanges led to about 12 million individuals obtaining new health policies between October 2013 and winter 2018 and an HHS calculation of 218 million with such coverage. The past two years included complexities with the repeal of the individual mandate to have insurance and the administration decision to withhold all payments for lower-income subsidies termed "CSR" payments. Large employers continue to have a requirement to offer health insurance, while smaller employers can obtain an incentive subsidy if they opt to offer coverage. NCSL has extensive information describing current laws, pending bills and latest federal guidance and rules from HHS.