Should the Supreme Court overturn all or even part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, state health insurance exchanges — already in place in several states — may be in serious jeopardy, according to a Washington Post report.
If the Supreme Court decides to strip the PPACA of its individual mandate that adult Americans have health insurance, the fear among experts is insurers would be forced to either increase rates — since some healthy young people will forgo insurance — or pull out of the state exchanges altogether. That would drive up the cost of plans included in state insurance exchanges, which would essentially defeat the exchanges' goal of making affordable health plans more widely available for individuals and small businesses.
States could decide to go the way of Massachusetts and enact their own individual mandates. Alternative measures to try and keep state health insurance exchanges afloat could include limiting the period people can enroll in plans, imposing penalties on last-minute enrollees or automatically enrolling people in plans by default.
California State Sen. Ed Hernandez (D), who chairs his state's committee on health, is concerned how California would move forward with plans to implement an exchange and provide care for high-need populations without funding from the PPACA.
"We might still want to move forward with our exchange," Sen. Hernandez said in the report. "But the problem is without the federal subsidies, we're going to have a much more difficult time providing health care for our most vulnerable populations."
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If the Supreme Court decides to strip the PPACA of its individual mandate that adult Americans have health insurance, the fear among experts is insurers would be forced to either increase rates — since some healthy young people will forgo insurance — or pull out of the state exchanges altogether. That would drive up the cost of plans included in state insurance exchanges, which would essentially defeat the exchanges' goal of making affordable health plans more widely available for individuals and small businesses.
States could decide to go the way of Massachusetts and enact their own individual mandates. Alternative measures to try and keep state health insurance exchanges afloat could include limiting the period people can enroll in plans, imposing penalties on last-minute enrollees or automatically enrolling people in plans by default.
California State Sen. Ed Hernandez (D), who chairs his state's committee on health, is concerned how California would move forward with plans to implement an exchange and provide care for high-need populations without funding from the PPACA.
"We might still want to move forward with our exchange," Sen. Hernandez said in the report. "But the problem is without the federal subsidies, we're going to have a much more difficult time providing health care for our most vulnerable populations."
More Articles on State Health Insurance Exchanges:
Health Insurance Exchange Implementation: Statuses of the 50 StatesHHS Announces Partnership Exchange Programs; Shares Exchange Blueprint Tool
Majority of Individual Health Plans Fall Below Minimum Requirement of PPACA