In the News/Media Activities
Senior Health Fellow Cori Uccello previewed the Academy’s new issue brief on the factors that will drive health insurance premiums for 2015 in a guest column for healthaffairs.org. Uccello noted that, while insurers know more about ACA enrollees than they did when they set last year’s premiums, uncertainty about enrollee health status and spending will impact calculations for 2015. Other drivers include lower funding for the ACA’s reinsurance program, and continued growth in health care costs. Uccello was also interviewed for a Vox.com story predicting increases in ACA premiums for 2015.
A Wall Street Journal article published April 30 asked if serving as a health actuary is “the hardest job in America.” The article noted that, in the aftermath of the ACA, “Actuaries have little to go on when predicting medical costs—and setting premiums. What's more, frequent regulatory tweaks from policy makers have forced actuaries to rejigger their projections and strategies on the fly. This is raising the stakes for actuaries.” It made note of the Academy’s “campaign-style rapid response” to comments from Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus.
A graphic from the Health Practice Council’s fact sheet on ACA risk-sharing mechanisms was reprinted in a Washington Post story. The Post’s Wonkblog outlined Obama administration plans for funding the law’s risk corridors, “meant to shield insurers from major losses if early Obamacare enrollees are less healthy than anticipated.” Academy graphics were used to explain the idea of risk corridors.
The risk corridor program has proven controversial. The Academy’s Risk-Sharing Work Group sent a comment letter to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid services on April 21, on a proposed rule pertaining to the risk-sharing mechanisms. Over the next month, the letter was quoted in opinion pieces published in The Weekly Standard, the Washington Examiner and LifeHealthPro. The BenefitsLink Health & Welfare Plans Newsletter summarized the comment letter without providing analysis.
Arizona is in a unique position, according to ACA enrollment numbers from the Department of Health and Human Services. The state leads the nation in the percentage of children who enrolled through the federal marketplace, but had fewer enrollees than average in every other age group. Arizona media has turned to Academy board member and Health Care Costs Work Group Chairperson Audrey Halvorson for help understanding the issue. Halvorson’s explanation of risk pools was covered by The Tucson Sentinel, KTAR-FM (Phoenix), arizona.newszap.com, and other media outlets.
Uccello discussed the Academy’s health costs/quality of care initiative on the April 29 edition of the “Health, Wealth and Wisdom” radio show, broadcast by WHNZ 1250 AM in Tampa, Fla. In a fifteen-minute radio interview, Uccello discussed trends in health care costs and spending, and the Academy’s efforts to educate policymakers on how to reduce the rate of spending growth.
The BenefitsLink Health & Welfare Plans Newsletter published an excerpt from the Academy’s practice note Minimum Value (MV) and Actuarial Value (AV) Determinations Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on April 25.
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