Will Health Policy make your insurance cheaper? This story took an early look at what health insurance premiums might cost for consumers who make too much to qualify for federal premium subsidies on the state exchanges. We ran the story more than seven months before open enrollment began, well before other outlets were considering the question. I included fresh analysis on the implications of the Affordable Care Act’s guaranteed-issue provision. This part of the law has potentially life-changing implications for the consumers 50 and over who are the focus of my beat, since it could ease their ability to retire early, to change jobs and to enjoy increased geographic mobility before they become eligible for Medicare. Readers were eager for this analysis: the story was read by more than 51,000 people, more than three times the average audience for my MarketWatch columns.
Will Health Policy make you change doctors? This story analyzed the insurance networks that would be available to shoppers on the exchanges in a way that no prior stories had, a few months before the start of open enrollment. Because they’re more likely to already have some kind of medical condition, my baby boomer readers are probably more concerned than 20-somethings about keeping their current doctors, and the story alerts people to prepare for the possibility that they wouldn’t be able to do so under marketplace plans. One new finding I reported was the significant number of plans on Covered California, one of the largest marketplaces, that were HMOs with limited doctor options for patients.
Obamacare could ease divorce’s final sting: This story took a fresh look at how the Affordable Care Act might make it easier for couples to divorce. The issue hadn’t previously gotten wide attention (in fact, several attorneys and financial planners I contacted weren’t familiar with the law’s implications for their divorcing clients at all.) The full implementation of the Affordable Care Act could have a huge impact on older people who want a divorce and are covered under their spouse’s health plan; it wasn’t uncommon for many older women, in particular, to postpone divorce until they were eligible for Medicare at age 65, and guaranteed affordable coverage will give many the freedom to act when the time is best for them.
A boomer waits, and waits, for Obamacare: In this story, I used a personal narrative to put a spotlight on the early technical glitches associated with Obamacare enrollment. I chronicled a baby boomer’s attempt to register for coverage on the first days of open enrollment and outlined how she stood to benefit from the Affordable Care Act’s market reforms. As an early retiree who paid huge premiums for inadequate individual coverage, she was a good example of one demographic that would particularly benefit from the law’s provisions. At a time when the exchanges were still a complete mystery to most people who might use them, I described where my subject was encountering roadblocks, then pressed officials and others for answers about why the system wasn’t working.