Insurance Market Reform

This report by the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors states that more than one-tenth of health insurance agents reported that they have stopped selling and servicing health care policies for individuals, and nearly 30 percent foresee doing so in the future due to the medical loss ratio requirement in the health care reform law that limits how much insurance companies can spend on administrative expenses.

In this brief sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the authors examine premium-contribution requirements for children's and family health insurance coverage through a combination of Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and employer-sponsored insurance in Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Washington.

The Georgia Health Policy Center released results from the 2011 Georgia Employer Survey showing that less than half of small firms (2 to 500 employees) in Georgia offer employer-sponsored coverage.

According to a preliminary determination by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), 17 states, the District of Columbia, and 5 territories do not have external review process that meet HHS standards.

This brief underscores the process of determining a plan’s actuarial value should produce a measure that can help distinguish plans between coverage tiers, while being as administratively practical as possible.