Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Premiums And Costs Could Rise If Republicans Win Obamacare Lawsuit, Study Finds
A new study indicates that a favorable ruling for House Republicans in their ObamaCare lawsuit would cause a large disruption, but would not cripple the law. The study from the Urban Institute finds that if Republicans win in the case of House v. Burwell, cutting off certain payments to insurers under the health law, insurers would face a major adjustment and have to hike premiums, but government subsidies would increase to help make up the difference and the system would likely not face major negative consequences. (Sullivan, 1/27)
Millions of young adults healthy enough to think they don't need insurance face painful choices this year as the sign-up deadline approaches for President Barack Obama's health care law. Fines for being uninsured rise sharply in 2016 — averaging nearly $1,000 per household, according to an independent estimate. It's forcing those in their 20s and 30s to take a hard look and see if they can squeeze in coverage to avoid penalties. (1/26)
Ohioans who switched Obamacare plans this year will save an average of $648, according to a new federal report that seeks to emphasize the value of shopping for plans on healthcare.gov. The report by the Health and Human Services Department indicates that 49,462 Ohioans have switched plans during the open enrollment period and will save an average of $54 on their monthly premiums. (Ross, 1/26)
And in final-hour health law enrollment news, a Health CT call center experiences an outage while Blue Cross says it's making progress in correcting errors made due to a technology problem —
With less than a week until the open enrollment period closes, three of the four call centers serving Access Health CT clients were offline during peak hours Monday because of the weekend’s winter weather, according to a press release from the health care exchange. (Constable, 1/26)
Blue Cross and Blue Shield says it has reinstated health coverage for thousands of stranded customers who were dropped from the insurer’s rolls in a technology debacle that cut off coverage for residents with urgent medical needs and rippled throughout the state. But the state’s largest health insurer is not disclosing how many customers are still without health insurance, even as Blue Cross concedes that call volumes to the company’s help line remain far above normal. (Murawski, 1/26)
