The nonprofit insurer lost $28 million in 2014 and, as of June 30, had lost $9.5 million this year. CEO Ken Lalime said early losses are not unusual for a new company, and said HealthyCT has the capital to get through the initial, unprofitable years.
Affordable Care Act
Posted inHealth
Obamacare signups begin with different outreach strategy
Janet Carlson and her team are preparing for a third round of outreach to help the uninsured get health care coverage in Litchfield County, and she’s anticipating more people who need significant assistance this time around. She’ll also be something of an anomaly, one of just a handful of people formally charged with finding and signing up the uninsured.
Posted inHealth
Obamacare Q&A: Signups start next week
Sunday marks the start of the third open enrollment period for health insurance under the federal health law. That means the nearly 170,000 Connecticut residents who buy their own health insurance will have a chance to shop for new plans — and many will need to take action to keep the coverage they have. Here’s what you need to know.
Posted inPolitics
Insurance mergers, defense bill, Puerto Rican debt crisis among week’s top issues
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton expressed “serious concerns” about the planned Aetna-Humana and Anthem-Cigna mergers this week; President Obama vetoed a defense appropriations bill; and the White House released a plan to help Puerto Rico deal with a severe economic crisis.
Posted inHealth
Access Health CT says uninsured rate lower than Census figures
Connecticut’s health insurance exchange released an analysis Thursday suggesting that the state’s uninsured rate this year is 3.8 percent, but that figure comes with some caveats.
Posted inHealth
Auditors question Access Health’s information security
In a report released Tuesday, state auditors cited concerns raised by a security expert who reviewed the Access Health insurance exchange following a 2014 security breach. They suggested that the quasi-public agency develop a system for responding to security deficiencies.
Posted inHealth, Politics
House panel grills Access Health CEO, other exchange chiefs
WASHINGTON – As part of a renewed attack on the Affordable Care Act, House Republicans grilled Access Health CEO James Wadleigh and the heads of other state marketplaces on Tuesday, saying they had wasted billions of taxpayer dollars on an effort that has raised health insurance deductibles and premiums.
Posted inHealth
Premiums grow modestly for employer insurance coverage, but deductibles grow faster
The cost of employer-sponsored insurance premiums grew by 4 percent this year, continuing a trend of relatively modest growth, but the share of medical costs patients pay when they get care continued to rise far faster, according to a survey released Tuesday by the Kaiser Family Foundation and Health Research & Educational Trust.
Posted inPolitics
Connecticut’s Washington Week
In the news: The Iran nuclear pact survives; GE lobbies for the Export-Import Bank; the number in Connecticut without health insurance drops; the delegation opposes defunding Planned Parenthood; and the UConn women’s basketball team shows up at the White House — again.
Posted inHealth
GAO: Still work to do on Obamacare state exchange IT systems
More than a year after launching, state-run health insurance exchanges, including Connecticut’s, still hadn’t fully completed key information technology functions, federal auditors said in a report released Wednesday.
Posted inHealth
Census: CT uninsured rate down to 6.9 percent
The U.S. Census Bureau’s estimates released Wednesday indicate that the uninsured rate fell in all 50 states and the District of Columbia from 2013 to 2014. Connecticut was one of six states that, along with Washington D.C., had an uninsured rate at or below 7 percent.
Posted inHealth, Money
Few who lost Medicaid have purchased insurance
When state lawmakers scaled back Medicaid eligibility for thousands of low-income parents to help balance this year’s budget, proponents argued the parents could buy deeply discounted coverage through the state’s health insurance exchange. But so far, fewer than 20 percent of those who lost coverage at the start of this month have signed up.
Posted inHealth
Buy your own health insurance? Here’s how your premiums will change next year
Insurance prices will change in 2016 for the nearly 170,000 Connecticut residents who buy their own health plans. So what will people be paying? Here’s a look, broken down in two ways.
Posted inHealth
Anthem individual rates to rise 2.4%, ConnectiCare’s by 8.5%
Premiums for the 55,000 people who buy Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield health plans through the state’s individual market will rise by an average of 2.4 percent next year, while ConnectiCare Insurance Company’s 34,400 customers will see an average rate hike of 8.5 percent.
Posted inHealth, Money
Obamacare and hospital finances, in nine charts
What really happened to hospitals since Obamacare’s 2010 passage? To find out, we looked at recently released financial data from the 2014 fiscal year, the first after the major coverage expansion provisions of the health law took effect.