Today is the 11th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act becoming law and the COVID pandemic has demonstrated how important the ACA’s promise of having reliable health coverage can be. Acknowledging the importance that the opportunity to get covered through the ACA marketplace has been during the pandemic, HHS announced today that the COVID Special […] Read More »

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) was passed by Congress and signed into law last week. Many of the provisions in the ARPA will have a direct effect on the ACA marketplaces. CMS has released a fact sheet which explains many of the provisions in the new law and how it will affect […] Read More »

Earlier this week, the Senate and House passed the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 and this afternoon, President Biden signed the act into law. One of the provisions in the American Rescue Plan Act would have a substantial effect on the amount of subsidies available to consumers who are enrolled in a plan through […] Read More »

The American Association on Health & Disability (AAHD) is hosting a webinar on March 24, 2021 at 2:00 PM ET entitled “COVID SEP – How is it different?”. This webinar will address how the COVID Special Enrollment Period (SEP) is different from usual SEPs. It will explore the specifics of how the COVID SEP works […] Read More »

Last month was the start of a COVID Special Enrollment Period (SEP). The SEP is going on now and will last for three months, ending on May 15, 2021. Yesterday, CMS gave the first indication of how well the COVID SEP is going as they reported that over 200,000 individuals had selected new plans. You […] Read More »

Today, February 15, 2021 marks the beginning of the COVID Special Enrollment Period (SEP). This SEP will last for three months and end on May 15, 2021. Last month’s announcement of the Biden administration’s executive order led to the COVID SEP for the federally facilitated marketplace. The COVID SEP only affects people who live in […] Read More »

A new report from the Urban Institute indicates that many people that do not have insurance have not even tried to enroll in coverage through the ACA marketplace or in Medicaid. The report finds that over half of the nearly 29 million people who do not have coverage know very little or nothing about the […] Read More »

Today, the Biden administration announced that it would be opening up the health insurance marketplace (healthcare.gov) for a Special Enrollment Period (SEP) stating that the SEP “will give Americans that need health care coverage during this global pandemic the opportunity to sign up.” The SEP will run from February 15 – May 15, 2021. You can […] Read More »

PARTICIPANTS NEEDED 2021 National Survey on Health and Disability Share how access to health care, insurance and the COVID-19 pandemic affects your life The NIDILRR-funded Collaborative on Health Reform and Independent Living (CHRIL) at the University of Kansas is looking for adults with disabilities to complete an online survey about health insurance, health care access […] Read More »

One of the final acts of the Trump administration was the release of part of the final Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters (NBPP). At the end of November, we had a news item on the proposed NBPP and in a prior newsletter, we highlighted a comment letter which AAHD joined expressing concerns about some […] Read More »