Insurance Market Reform

 This bill modified Maryland state law to conform with consumer protection and insurance market reform provisions in the Affordable Care Act. 

With several of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) major provisions going into effect in January 2014, including single risk pool rating, guaranteed issue, actuarial value metal tiers, and essential health benefits, there has been concern about the impact of these market reforms on health insurance rates and their distribution. To help state regulators tackle these issues, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) released this paper at its Spring 2013 National Meeting detailing the options that states have to help minimize rate increases. 

Beginning in 2014, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will extend health coverage to millions of Americans. This will be done, in part, by offering tax credits to low- and middle-income Americans, which will help to offset a portion of the cost of health insurance premiums and allow many previously uninsured individuals and families to purchase private coverage. This report takes a closer look at these premium tax credits and estimate how many people across the country could benefit from them.

This interim rule builds on the standards set forth in the Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters for 2014. This document adjusts risk corridors calculations that would align the calculations with the single risk pool provision, and sets standards permitting QHP issuers to use an alternate methodology for calculating the value of cost-sharing reductions. 

The ACA established a Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan (CO-OP) program to increase competition among plans and improve consumer choice. This policy brief describes the CO-OP program and examines issues related to its implementation and likelihood of success.

Portability, in the context of health insurance, describes the ability of an employee to maintain access to health insurance coverage and comprehensive benefits after leaving a job. It also applies to the ability of those purchasing insurance on their own to drop one insurance policy and buy another. This fact sheet explains how portability is regulated under current law and how the Affordable Care Act will affect portability in 2014. 

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires insurers to cover a minimum set of medical benefits, known as “essential health benefits,” and states must select a “benchmark plan” to serve as a reference point. This issue brief examines states' progress in selecting a benchmark plan and the approaches they’ve adopted in making their selection.

This final rule released by HHS provides further detail on risk adjustment, reinsurance and risk corridors programs; cost-sharing reductions; user fees for federally facilitated exchanges; advance payments of the premium tax credit; the federally facilitated Small Business Health Option Program; and the medical loss ratio program.