Category: Health Care

Policy in the Pandemic: Housing Security Policies Reduce U.S. COVID-19 Infection Rates

https://nicholasinstitute.duke.edu/articles/policy-pandemic-housing-security-policies-reduce-us-covid-19-infection-rates As the impact of COVID-19 grows in the United States, the lack of vaccines or effective treatment, coupled with anticipated subsequent outbreaks, has made it necessary to adopt unprecedented policy interventions across many aspects of daily life. Now many people are facing financial challenges resulting from these interventions and are struggling to pay housin ...

The MO Exchange: Steep Rate Hikes Expected

The MO Exchange: Steep Rate Hikes Expected

Proposed rates for the 2018 Missouri health insurance exchange were released on Friday by the Missouri Department of Insurance. While the Department and our state’s carriers both deserve credit for ensuring that all counties in MO have ACA coverage, this comes at significant cost. Requested increases average between 35 and 42% according to a review by the Department and as reported here. What makes these increases even worse is that they come with compromised transparency to ...

Public Access to Health Insurance Rates Postponed in MO

Public Access to Health Insurance Rates Postponed in MO

The annual review of health insurance rates helps to protect consumers from insurance companies unjustly increasing rates on premiums. Federal regulations specify that 2018 health insurance rates must be made public by August 1 to facilitate this review process but the Missouri Department of Insurance has postponed public access of these filings in our state to September 1, 2017. With all the activity on the national level regarding the future of subsidies and the last-minute ad ...

Exit would be disastrous for MO

The potential exit of Anthem from ACA in Missouri would be disastrous for Missourians ACA choice. And highlights the importance of reviewing rate increases by consumer watchdog like CCM.   http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/anthem-likely-to-retreat-from-obamacare-for-analysts-say/article_5fc6ce30-9dbd-50df-a187-fba67923a9fb.html#utm_source=stltoday.com&utm_campaign=BusinessNewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=1DBDAE0183C0B49F9CB94AD3EE8564A5EF7394F ...

ACA Deadline Coming!

The Trump administration has canceled all government-sponsored outreach advertising, email reminders, phone calls and other promotion related to ACA open enrollment deadline.   But ACA remains the law of the land, requiring most people to have health insurance and providing subsidies for 2017 health plans.   Help us get the word out in these last few days of Open Enrollment 2017 to reach consumers and provide in-person help is more important now than ever! ...

Health Insurance Enrollment extended to Jan 1

This is the second consecutive year that federal officials extended the deadline for consumers to sign up for coverage through Affordable Care Act marketplaces. By the start of this week, about 4 million people had chosen ACA plans. Obama administration officials estimated that more than 11 million will be covered through ACA in 2017.   https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/2016/12/15/6b949e9a-c339-11e6-9a51-cd56ea1c2bb7_story.html?utm_term=.b15768b4ab41 ...

MO DOI postpones Anthem-Cigna hearing

Bad news for consumers. Anthem-Cigna merger hearing has been post-poned by the MO Dept of Insurance. A Missouri hearing would have given the department the opportunity to look into how the merger would affect MO consumers before it goes to a federal judge. The department held a similar hearing for the merger between Aetna and Humana and ruled against this merger. A similar decision would have been important for the federal judge to know before ruling. http://www.stltoday.com/ ...

Federal Antitrust trial over Anthem-Cigna merger begins

Today marked the first day of the federal trial over the proposed Anthem-Cigna merger which would create the nation's largest health insurance company. Government antitrust lawyers are attempting to block this $48 billion deal which threatens to reshape the U.S. market for health coverage. http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2016/11/21/antitrust-trial-over-aetna-cigna-merger-begins/94222422/ ...

Close