St@teside

The State Coverage Initiatives (SCI) program is working with Stan Dorn and the Urban Institute to identify and document policy options in the Affordable Care Act that could be important to accomplishing longstanding state objectives. The authors takes what can seem like a confusing and intimidating mass of health policy detail and organize it into understandable policy directions that orient state officials and stakeholders to help chart a path forward. Rather than itemize the full range of decisions and actions that the law expects of states, this paper synthesizes the details of federal reform into several broad themes:

• Maximizing residents’ health coverage and access to care;

• Helping health care and coverage function more like a traditional, healthy market;

• Holding insurers accountable for providing high-quality coverage at reasonable cost to the consumer;

• Reforming the health care delivery system to slow cost growth while improving quality; and

• Limiting state general fund spending on health care.