On this version:
- Common individual-market premiums barely budging for 2022
- Brief-term plans with longer period now accessible in Arizona
- Decide permits Florida Blue to proceed to require brokers to be captive
- Indiana residents file swimsuit to dam Medicaid work requirement
- Michigan enacts legislation to make Medicaid work requirement reporting much less onerous
- New Hampshire spent $187,000 making an attempt to get folks into compliance with Medicaid work requirement
Right here’s a have a look at the newest state-level well being insurance-related information.
Common individual-market premiums barely budging for 2022
As we get nearer to open enrollment for 2022 well being plans, an growing variety of states have finalized individual-market premiums. At ACASignups, Charles Gaba has spent months monitoring common charge adjustments for subsequent 12 months, and his information now embrace remaining charges for greater than a 3rd of the states. At this level, the typical charge change nationwide is trying like a 0.1 % improve, which works out to about one greenback monthly.
Brief-term plans with longer period now accessible in Arizona
A brand new Arizona legislation – permitting short-term well being plans to comply with federal tips – took impact on the finish of August. This implies short-term plans in Arizona can have preliminary phrases of as much as 364 days, and complete period, together with renewals, of as much as 36 months. As of mid-September, many of the short-term plans on the market in Arizona are nonetheless capped at six months, however there are a number of plans accessible now with 364-day phrases. Arizona is one in all 18 states following federal tips for short-term plans.
Decide permits Florida Blue to require brokers to be captive
Florida Blue is the dominant individual-market insurer in Florida, with greater than one million enrollees. And the service requires its brokers to signal exclusivity contracts, stopping them from promoting every other insurers’ plans. Oscar entered the market in Orlando as of 2022, and promptly sued Florida Blue over this tactic. The U.S. Division of Justice sided with Oscar, however a Florida choose has dismissed the case, permitting Florida Blue to proceed to ban brokers from exhibiting their purchasers every other insurers’ plans.
Indiana residents file swimsuit to dam Medicaid work requirement
Indiana is slowly phasing in a brand new work requirement for Medicaid growth enrollees. The requirement is at present set at 20 hours monthly, however will ramp as much as 80 hours monthly by subsequent summer season. This week, 4 Indiana residents filed a federal lawsuit to dam the work requirement, so its future is unsure. [In rulings that are being appealed, a federal judge has overturned Medicaid work requirements in Kentucky, New Hampshire, and Arkansas. But Indiana’s program is less draconian in terms of how coverage is terminated due to non-compliance and how soon it can be reinstated.]
Michigan enacts a legislation to make Medicaid work requirement reporting much less onerous
Michigan’s Medicaid work requirement is slated to take impact in January. However new laws was enacted this week in an effort to cut back the executive burden and make it a bit simpler for enrollees to report their work actions to the state. Nevertheless, lawmakers have rejected Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s proposal to allocate $10 million to a public data marketing campaign geared toward making certain folks perceive the work requirement and are in a position to adjust to it.
New Hampshire spent $187,000 making an attempt to get folks into compliance with Medicaid work requirement
New Hampshire’s Medicaid work requirement was scheduled to start this summer season, though its begin date was delayed from June till September and a federal choose finally overturned the work requirement in July. Earlier than the court docket’s ruling, New Hampshire spent $187,000 in efforts to succeed in out to Medicaid enrollees and assist them come into compliance with the work requirement. However the state’s efforts fell far quick, reaching solely a small fraction of the individuals who would have been topic to the work requirement, and highlighting the challenges inherent in avoiding inadvertent protection losses underneath Medicaid work necessities (to be clear, protection losses are usually a function, not a bug, however they’re additionally the rationale three states’ work necessities have been overturned).
