�鶹Ů��

When the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance marketplace opens in two weeks, many consumers will have a new option for the law’s fourth open-enrollment period: standardized health plans that cover basic services without a deductible. With many health plans on the marketplace coming with deductibles in the thousands of dollars, consumers have complained that they were getting little benefit beyond coverage for catastrophic problems. The new standardized options are meant to address that concern — to ensure that “enrollees receive some upfront value for their premium dollars,” as the Obama administration said. (Pear, 10/17)

UnitedHealth Group Inc. boosted its full-year profit forecast, as its health insurance and consulting businesses both recorded strong results following the company’s retreat from Obamacare, announced earlier this year. Earnings for 2016, excluding some items, will be about $8 a share, up from a previous forecast of $7.80 to $7.95. Third-quarter adjusted earnings were $2.17 a share, UnitedHealth said Tuesday in a statement, beating the $2.08 average of analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. (Tracer, 10/18)

As Democratic challengers to Republican senators try to harness momentum from Donald Trump’s many controversies, a conservative group said it will spend big to hit them over President Obama’s own polarizing signature achievement: the Affordable Care Act. Americans for Prosperity, a group funded by the billionaire Koch brothers, launched a million dollar ad campaign on Tuesday pointed at voters in eight states with competitive Senate contests, from states where the Republican is way ahead, such as Ohio, to the tightening contests in Missouri and Indiana. (Yokley, 10/17)

Marilyn Tavenner, the face of private insurers, does not think Affordable Care Act exchanges are about to implode. But she does think Congress will have to make some tough decisions relatively soon about how much to buffer insurers from risk. “I do not think the exchanges are in a death spiral. I do think they’re unstable, and we have a responsibility to stabilize them,” said Tavenner, president and CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans, in an interview with Morning Consult. “That’s on all of us.” (Owens, 10/17)

Health insurance brokers are one of many industries that help both individuals and small businesses navigate the complex health insurance maze. Their services have been highlighted as key to helping  uninsured Americans get enrolled following the Affordable Care Act rollout.  The number of people employed to help insurance shoppers to shop has been steadily increasing, with just over one million agents, brokers and related service employees logged in 2014, according to The Statistics Portal. Nearly 260,000 worked in Texas. Brokers typically get paid by commission from health insurers when they  enroll someone into a plan. However, they say it’s been harder to do business, and not just because of the delay in getting access to plan information. (Rice, 10/17)

The sticker price for individual health plans sold on Michigan's Affordable Care Act exchange will jump 16.7% next year under new rates announced Monday by state officials. The rates will be in effect Nov. 1, when open enrollment starts again on Healthcare.gov. The double-digit increases will mean a financial hit for taxpayers in general, as well as some of the 393,322 Michiganders who currently buy individual health insurance on or off the government-run exchange. (Reindl, 10/17)

Because of market turmoil and decisions by United Healthcare and Aetna to withdraw from Affordable Care Act exchanges in Pennsylvania for 2017, the remaining insurer in the Philadelphia area, Independence Blue Cross, has been granted a bigger rate increase -- 28 percent -- than it requested in the spring, the state Insurance Department said Monday. Insurance Commissioner Teresa Miller said additional companies beyond United and Aetna were considering ending their ACA individual-exchange businesses in Pennsylvania. If that happened, some counties might have been left without any offerings on the exchange, which is where individuals have to buy plans to qualify for federal subsidies. (Brubaker, 10/17)

Some health insurers say they’re paying too much to rival Blue Cross Blue Shield plans under a key pillar of the federal health law designed to compensate insurers that take on sicker and more expensive patients. The critics’ chief complaint is that the Affordable Care Act’s risk-adjustment program unfairly rewards health plans — including Blue Shield of California — that have excess administrative costs and higher premiums. That comes at the expense of more efficient, lower-priced plans in the individual market, they say. (Terhune, 10/18)