The Affordable Care Act (ACA), signed into law back in 2010, was designed to extend health insurance coverage to millions of uninsured American citizens. This act included expanding Medicaid eligibility and creating a Health Insurance marketplace. It’s essentially meant to cover essential health benefits, such as preventive services, prescription medications, laboratory works, hospitalization, and emergency services, among many others.
However, there have been some changes made under the previous administration. Some of these changes include cutting funds for the exchange plan, restricting the enrollment period, and changing the Medicaid requirements and eligibility. But with the recent election, the newly elected President, Joe Biden, has made major proposals to improve ACA and expand healthcare coverage.
In this article, we’ll share five healthcare areas the new US president must focus on:
1. Restored funding for the ACA exchange plan
The previous administration had cut funding for both marketing and navigation with the assumption that people already knew about the exchanges, which have been operating for years. However, there’s still a need to continuously promote these and extend healthcare to those unaware of the exchanges. Biden can restore the funding and change the promotional strategy to reach out to as many uninsured people as possible, especially marginalized communities.
2. New special enrollment period
Under the previous administration, the open enrollment period was limited to only six weeks. While this was done for streamlined purposes, having a special open enrollment period will make a huge difference in providing coverage access. For this reason, it’s good for the new president to jumpstart a new enrollment period. The ultimate purpose of this is to provide healthcare opportunities to uninsured people who have failed to enroll during the open period, which was the original purpose of the ACA!
3. No work requirement waivers but easy Medicaid eligibility
The previous administration approved work requirement waivers for eight states. However, up until today, they haven’t been implemented, and another seven applications are still pending. Under this new leadership, it’s more likely that Biden will reject any work requirement waivers for Medicaid in several states.
On the other hand, it’s good to make Medicaid eligibility easier for uninsured people, although there are no work requirement waivers in most states. Indeed, it will help if the president creates incentives for various states for easy sign-up and access to Medicaid.
4. ACA insurer user fees reduction
The ACA insurer user fees are used for the ACA operations, whether to bolster exchange enrollment or funding navigators. They are usually paid as part of the monthly premiums charged to the customers. However, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently proposed to reduce these fees from 3 percent to 2.25 percent for 2022. That said, it’s good for the president to consider this proposal and how it can help healthcare consumers.
Conclusion
At this point, we’ve covered five specific healthcare areas that Joe Biden must focus on—restored funding, a new special enrollment period, no work requirement waivers but easy Medicaid eligibility, and user fees reduction. By addressing these healthcare concerns, expect to have a better ACA healthcare plan for Americans in the years to come!
How will the new US president ensure better healthcare in the country moving forward? That’s what we’re going to find out! We provide the latest health and medical news in the healthcare industry. If you’re looking to get more updates, subscribe to our newsletter today and read our news articles!
