Tag Archives: premiums

Aging experts assess priorities under a new administration

Leave a reply
Liz Seegert

About Liz Seegert

Liz Seegert (@lseegert), is AHCJ’s topic editor on aging. Her work has appeared in NextAvenue.com, Journal of Active Aging, Cancer Today, Kaiser Health News, the Connecticut Health I-Team and other outlets. She is a senior fellow at the Center for Health Policy and Media Engagement at George Washington University and co-produces the HealthCetera podcast.

Photo by Boris Bartels via Flickr

From the future of delivery system reform to controlling prescription drug costs to considering how states may handle proposed Medicaid cuts, there is significant concern these days among policy experts who focus on aging and health. Several of the addressed the issue at a recent panel in New York City on the future of aging policy under the Trump administration.

Developing a national aging strategy was high on the list for participants of the session, “Aging Priorities for a New Administration,” part of the d.health Summit 2017 on May 10. Moderating was Joanne Kenen, health care executive editor at Politico and AHCJ’s topic leader on health reform. Continue reading →

Need help navigating the current health care premium controversy?

Leave a reply
Joanne Kenen

About Joanne Kenen

Joanne Kenen, (@JoanneKenen) the health editor at Politico, is AHCJ’s topic leader on health reform and curates related material at healthjournalism.org. She welcomes questions and suggestions on health reform resources and tip sheets at joanne@healthjournalism.org. Follow her on Facebook.

Photo: Mike Licht via Flickr

Buying health insurance – or understanding what our plans cover and how much we have to pay – isn’t easy. Moreover, the people we interview about their health plans and ACA shopping experiences can be just as confused as everyone else. Headlines about the health law and affordability and limited choices can confuse people, or make them assume their own costs are going up – which may not be true. Several million people who are eligible for ACA subsidies still aren’t getting them – and many don’t realize they may be eligible for financial assistance. Continue reading →

A new take on premium trends gets pushback from ACA critics

Leave a reply
Joanne Kenen

About Joanne Kenen

Joanne Kenen, (@JoanneKenen) the health editor at Politico, is AHCJ’s topic leader on health reform and curates related material at healthjournalism.org. She welcomes questions and suggestions on health reform resources and tip sheets at joanne@healthjournalism.org. Follow her on Facebook.

premium-trendsHere’s an argument that premiums under the Affordable Care Act actually have dropped. Loren Adler and Paul Ginsberg of the Brookings Institution argue this in a recent Health Affairs post, summing up their findings. But not everyone agrees.

Conservatives have attacked both the methodology and the conclusions in “Obamacare Premiums Are Lower Than You Think.” Given that it contradicts some earlier studies, even some ACA supporters say they’d like to see more research on some of the points made by Adler and Ginsberg. More on the critics below, but first let’s look at pair’s findings. Adler and Ginsberg write: Continue reading →

Getting the facts straight in the ACA reform debate

3 Replies
Joanne Kenen

About Joanne Kenen

Joanne Kenen, (@JoanneKenen) the health editor at Politico, is AHCJ’s topic leader on health reform and curates related material at healthjournalism.org. She welcomes questions and suggestions on health reform resources and tip sheets at joanne@healthjournalism.org. Follow her on Facebook.

Dem-candidatesMany of us spend time fact-checking what political candidates say during the debates.

But sometimes we need to fact-check the moderators (or perhaps the TV producers who help create questions outside a moderator’s area of expertise).

Witness the last month’s debate among candidates for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. Most of it was focused on foreign policy, but there were a few health care questions. At one point, moderator Martha Raddatz noted that health insurance premiums had risen 27 percent in five years. She then asked Hillary Clinton how she would fix the Affordable Care Act: Continue reading →

Getting behind the confusion that leads some to lose their subsidized health insurance

Leave a reply
Joanne Kenen

About Joanne Kenen

Joanne Kenen, (@JoanneKenen) the health editor at Politico, is AHCJ’s topic leader on health reform and curates related material at healthjournalism.org. She welcomes questions and suggestions on health reform resources and tip sheets at joanne@healthjournalism.org. Follow her on Facebook.

Photo: frances1972 via Flickr

Photo: frances1972 via Flickr

We posted recently about California’s assessment of who was dropping out of the exchange, including the finding that most people leaving Covered California were getting health insurance elsewhere.

But as Abby Goodnough later reported from Yazoo City, Miss., that’s not always the reason for higher turnover in other areas. Retaining enrollees is a challenge – and affordability is one big reason. That’s true even for people whose premiums are heavily subsidized. Continue reading →