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The American Rescue Plan Act’s marketplace provisions: early implementation experiences and lessons learned from three state-based marketplaces
The American Rescue Plan Act’s marketplace provisions: early implementation experiences and lessons learned from three state-based marketplaces
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Author(s):
- Coughlin, Teresa A., author
Wengle, Erik, author
Samuels-Jakubos, Haley, author - Contributor(s):
- Urban Institute, issuing body.
- Publication:
- Washington, DC : Urban Institute, October 2021
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Costs and Cost Analysis -- legislation & jurisprudence
COVID-19 -- economics
Socioeconomic Factors
United States
United States. - Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- Included in the wide-ranging American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) are several provisions that expand the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA’s) premium tax credits (PTCs) for families and individuals who have coverage through the health insurance Marketplaces. These provisions call for one of the most significant changes to the ACA since its passage 11 years ago. Designed to help people affected by the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) and to address the affordability of health insurance for people with low and moderate incomes, a long-standing policy problem,1 the ARPA boosts the amount of the subsidies provided to those already eligible for Marketplace PTCs. For the first time, the ARPA also offers subsidies to people with incomes above 400 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL). Importantly, these ARPA provisions are temporary and last through 2022, unless Congress makes them permanent, as called for in the American Families Plan. That the provisions are temporary underscores the need for quick action on the parts of state-based Marketplaces (SBMs) and the federally facilitated Marketplace (FFM) to ensure people take advantage of this new financial help. If made permanent, the ARPA PTC enhancements are estimated to reduce the number of people uninsured by 4.4 million, to add 5.1 million Marketplace enrollees, and to reduce Marketplace premiums by 15 percent by 2022 (Banthin et al. 2021). To provide some insight into early lessons learned by SBMs implementing the ARPA Marketplace provisions, we interviewed state Marketplace officials, representatives from navigator organizations, and Marketplace health insurers in California, New York, and Washington State. In the interviews, we HEALTH POLICY CENTER The American Rescue Plan Act’s Marketplace Provisions Early Implementation Experiences and Lessons Learned from Three State-Based Marketplaces 2 THE AMERICAN RESCUE PLAN ACT’S MARKETPLACE PROVISIONS asked how these states implemented the ARPA Marketplace provisions, how implementation was going, and what future steps they might take. We chose these study states because each has long been a leader among SBMs. Thus, their experiences implementing the ARPA provisions offer lessons that could be helpful to state and federal policymakers as the 2022 open enrollment period approaches and could inform future Marketplace improvements. We conducted semistructured interviews between May and August 2021. To conduct this work, we relied on federal and state documents and reports and other grey literature.
- Copyright:
- Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY-NC-DC license. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (20 pages))
- NLM Unique ID:
- 9918299583806676 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918299583806676