Obamacare

While the drama over at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is ongoing, the big story in Washington right now is still taxes. Members of Congress are back from their holiday break, and Republicans are doing their best to tweak and prod the tax plan to garner enough votes to get it through the Senate. That […]

We’re half-way through the Obamacare open enrollment period and we’ve got a bit of a health care mystery on our hands. Earlier this week, federal health officials reported nearly 800-thousand consumers selected plans on healthcare.gov – the federal website where people shop for plans under the Affordable Care Act. It’s the third consecutive week enrollment […]

And this one lands directly on the insurance industry, for now. The president cut payments to insurers that go toward subsidies for low-income people who buy policies on the health care exchanges. Those so-called cost-sharing reductions were worth billions to the insurance industry. So what will it do now? 

Why nothing will change right away

Today, when the president signed an executive order expanding coverage options outside of the Obamacare marketplaces, he promised that the order would create more insurance options at “lower prices, and for millions of Americans.”   Actually, the order is asking federal agencies to broaden the use of short-term insurance options, which aren’t beholden to the coverage […]

For the time being at least, Congress is not going to repeal Obamacare. But President Trump knows there’s a lot he can do on his own. There are reports that he’s going to issue an executive order this week, making it easier for insurers to sidestep ACA regulations and sell more bare bones, cheaper plans […]