The prospect of requiring health insurance plans to cover specific treatments or services is an annual debate in the Connecticut General Assembly, often pitting patients who faced problems against critics who say mandates raise insurance premiums. Now the governor wants to change the process – a proposal that’s drawn both praise and opposition.
insurance
Posted inHealth
CT Obamacare exchange at a ‘critical crossroads,’ leader says
Jim Wadleigh cited a new IRS policy that could affect the individual mandate, a proposed federal rule aimed at stabilizing insurance markets, and the ongoing uncertainty about the Affordable Care Act’s future. The exchange also has a budget crunch to fix.
Posted inHealth
CT Obamacare exchange enrollment down 3.9 percent
The open enrollment period for Connecticut’s health insurance exchange ended with 111,524 people signed up for private health plans – approximately 4,500 fewer than last year.
Posted inHealth
With time running out, Obamacare signups lag amid uncertainties
With one day left in the sign-up period for private insurance coverage, the Connecticut health insurance exchange’s enrollment has slowed down compared to past years, and the marketplace’s chief executive thinks confusion about the future of Obamacare could be a factor.
Posted inHealth, Politics
‘It’s a public health crisis:’ Malloy proposals target opioids
The proposals include requiring physicians to prescribe opioids electronically rather than on paper; allowing visiting nurses to destroy unused medication; and allowing patients to direct that they not be prescribed an opioid medication.
Posted inHealth
Access Health to tighten midyear sign-up rules, restore broker fees
The changes were made in response to concerns that people are taking advantage of current rules to sign up only after they get sick, and worries that a lack of payments to brokers has affected enrollment.
Posted inHealth
CT exchange wants to require broker commissions for health plans
Insurance companies that sell plans through the state’s exchange stopped paying commissions to brokers this year, and the exchange’s CEO says that has affected enrollment.
Posted inHealth
Access Health seeks to tighten midyear enrollment rules, citing potential abuse
People who try to buy health insurance after the annual open-enrollment period could soon face stricter scrutiny before getting covered under a proposal aimed at cracking down on those who forgo insurance, then enroll once they get sick.
Posted inHealth, Politics
Insurers: Repeal of ACA should go slowly, keep subsidies awhile
WASHINGTON – As Republicans in Congress begin work on a repeal of the Affordable Care Act, the nation’s health insurers are telling lawmakers to keep paying subsidies to the companies and to low-income Americans so they can afford coverage. Insurers are also asking that Congress create a long transition period before changes to the ACA take effect.
Posted inHealth
Access Health says 104,495 signed up for insurance that began Jan. 1
That figure represents customers who met the first coverage deadline for Obamacare plans, Dec. 15.
Posted inHealth, Politics
Malloy to Congress: Obamacare repeal would be ‘disastrous’
But the governor also said he would work with Congress to make improvements to the existing health care system, and Insurance Commissioner Katharine L. Wade recommended several areas for improving the federal health law.
Posted inHealth
What ‘repeal-replace’ could mean for your employer health plan
If you’re like most Connecticut residents and get your health insurance through an employer, chances are the future of Obamacare doesn’t have nearly as much bearing on your coverage. But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing at stake for you as federal lawmakers look to repeal and replace the health law.
Posted inHealth
CT Obamacare sign-up deadline extended to Saturday
Updated 1:35 p.m.
Thursday had been the deadline for people to sign up for private insurance plans that would begin covering them Jan. 1. The exchange is extending that deadline to Dec. 17 at midnight.
Posted inHealth, Justice
Cigna distances itself from Anthem at key point in merger trial
WASHINGTON — Hostilities between proposed merger partners Anthem and Cigna were on full display Tuesday at a key point of a U.S. antitrust trial over the deal. Cigna attorney Rick Rule said the company did not sign a key closing document because it did not agree with Anthem’s characterizations of the testimony of certain Cigna witnesses.
Posted inHealth
522,000 CT adults have a pre-existing condition, analysis says
Nearly one in four Connecticut adults have a health condition that probably would make them unable to buy insurance through the individual market without protections for people with pre-existing conditions, such as those created by Obamacare, according to an analysis released Monday by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
