Access Health CT has joined 11 other state-based health insurance exchanges in a letter to the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee outlining specific strategies to help stabilize the individual health care market.
“In response to continued confusion over the future of the Affordable Care Act, I have been advocating for the specific things we can do to help bring stability to the individual health insurance marketplace, both on the state and national level,” said AHCT CEO Jim Wadleigh. “I”™m pleased to join my colleagues from across the country in presenting our consensus approach.”
Specifically, the letter to the members of the Senate HELP committee laid out the following strategies:
- Assure consistent funding of cost-sharing reduction payments;
- Establish a permanent, federal reinsurance program;
- Maintain flexibility over the use of 1332 waivers; and
- Promote stability through a commitment to certainty and long-term solutions
“As a group, we believe the best way to strengthen and stabilize the insurance market is to provide certainty around funding and affordability, and expanded flexibility to states,” Wadleigh said. “Without a continued commitment to provide CSR payments and a permanent, comprehensive, federally funded reinsurance program, insurance rates will continue to rise and state budgets will continue to be stretched thin.
“It is exactly this kind of predictability that is needed to promote competition and help stimulate affordability,” he added.
Senior leadership from the following state-based exchanges also signed the letter: Massachusetts, Oregon, Idaho, the District of Columbia, Nevada, California, Washington state, Vermont, Minnesota, Colorado and Rhode Island. A copy of the letter can be seen here.
The Senate HELP Committee will hold hearings to receive additional input in September.
