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Health insurance or medical insurance is a type of insurance that covers the whole or a part of the risk of a person incurring medical expenses. As with other types of insurance, risk is shared among many individuals. By estimating the overall risk of health risk and health system expenses over the risk pool, an insurer can develop a routine finance structure, such as a monthly premium or payroll tax, to provide the money to pay for the health care benefits specified in the insurance agreement. The benefit is administered by a central organization, such as a government agency, private business, or not-for-profit entity.
Social insurance is a form of social welfare that provides insurance against economic risks. The insurance may be provided publicly or through the subsidizing of private insurance. In contrast to other forms of social assistance, individuals' claims are partly dependent on their contributions, which can be considered insurance premiums to create a common fund out of which the individuals are then paid benefits in the future.
Medicare Part D, also called the Medicare prescription drug benefit, is an optional United States federal-government program to help Medicare beneficiaries pay for self-administered prescription drugs. Part D was enacted as part of the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 and went into effect on January 1, 2006. Under the program, drug benefits are provided by private insurance plans that receive premiums from both enrollees and the government. Part D plans typically pay most of the cost for prescriptions filled by their enrollees. However, plans are later reimbursed for much of this cost through rebates paid by manufacturers and pharmacies.
Health care prices in the United States of America describe market and non-market factors that determine pricing, along with possible causes as to why prices are higher than in other countries.
The Medicare for All Act, also known as the Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act or United States National Health Care Act, is a bill first introduced in the United States House of Representatives by Representative John Conyers (D-MI) in 2003, with 38 co-sponsors. In 2019, the original 16-year-old proposal was renumbered, and Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) introduced a broadly similar, but more detailed, bill, HR 1384, in the 116th Congress. As of November 3, 2019, it had 116 co-sponsors still in the House at the time, or 49.8% of House Democrats.
In the United States, health insurance helps pay for medical expenses through privately purchased insurance, social insurance, or a social welfare program funded by the government. Synonyms for this usage include "health coverage", "health care coverage", and "health benefits". In a more technical sense, the term "health insurance" is used to describe any form of insurance providing protection against the costs of medical services. This usage includes both private insurance programs and social insurance programs such as Medicare, which pools resources and spreads the financial risk associated with major medical expenses across the entire population to protect everyone, as well as social welfare programs like Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program, which both provide assistance to people who cannot afford health coverage.
Healthcare reform in the United States has a long history. Reforms have often been proposed but have rarely been accomplished. In 2010, landmark reform was passed through two federal statutes: the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), signed March 23, 2010, and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, which amended the PPACA and became law on March 30, 2010.
In the United States, health insurance marketplaces, also called health exchanges, are organizations in each state through which people can purchase health insurance. People can purchase health insurance that complies with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act at ACA health exchanges, where they can choose from a range of government-regulated and standardized health care plans offered by the insurers participating in the exchange.
The public health insurance option, also known as the public insurance option or the public option, is a proposal to create a government-run health insurance agency that would compete with other private health insurance companies within the United States. The public option is not the same as publicly funded health care, but was proposed as an alternative health insurance plan offered by the government. The public option was initially proposed for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, but was removed after independent Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman threatened a filibuster.
Members of the United States population between the ages of 18 and 29 who decide that it is in their financial best interest to forgo health insurance are sometimes referred to as young invincibles by the insurance industry, a term coined to express the idea that the young demographic perceives themselves as immune to sickness and injury. The argument is that these individuals are young and in good health, so they have a low risk of experiencing substantial health issues that would lead to large amounts of spending on health care. Further, this group tends to have a mentality of “it won’t happen to me” with regards to most causes of injury. Together, these beliefs lead to the young invincibles not purchasing insurance.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA), formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and colloquially known as Obamacare, is a landmark U.S. federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. Together with the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 amendment, it represents the U.S. healthcare system's most significant regulatory overhaul and expansion of coverage since the enactment of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965.
Healthcare in the United States is largely provided by private sector healthcare facilities, and paid for by a combination of public programs, private insurance, and out-of-pocket payments. The U.S. is the only developed country without a system of universal healthcare, and a significant proportion of its population lacks health insurance.
James Claude Robinson is a professor of health economics at the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health, where he has the title of the Leonard D. Schaeffer Endowed Chair in Health Economics and Policy. Robinson is also the Chair of the Berkeley Center for Health Technology, which supports research and professional education projects related to coverage, management, and payment methods for innovative technologies including biopharmaceuticals, medical devices, and diagnostics.
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In the United States, essential health benefits (EHBs) are a set of ten benefits, defined under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010, that must be covered by individually-purchased health insurance and plans in small-group markets both inside and outside of health insurance marketplaces. Large-group health plans, self-insured ERISA plans, and ERISA-governed multi-employer welfare arrangements that are not subject to state insurance law are exempted from the requirement.
The Bipartisan Health Care Stabilization Act of 2017 was a 2017 proposed compromise reached by senator and HELP Committee chairman Lamar Alexander and senator and HELP Committee ranking member Patty Murray to amend the Affordable Care Act to fund cost-sharing reductions subsidies. The plan will also provide more flexibility for state waivers, allow a new "Copper Plan" or catastrophic coverage for those under 30, allow interstate insurance compacts, and redirect consumer fees to states for outreach. President Trump had stopped paying the cost sharing subsidies and the Congressional Budget Office estimated his action would cost $200 billion, cause insurance sold on the exchange to cost 20% more and cause one million people to lose insurance.
The cost sharing reductions (CSR) subsidy is the smaller of two subsidies paid under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) as part of the healthcare system in the United States. The subsidies were paid from 2013 to 2017 to insurance companies on behalf of eligible enrollees in the ACA to reduce co-payments and deductibles. They were discontinued by President Donald Trump in October 2017. The nature of the subsidy as discretionary spending versus mandatory was challenged in court by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives in 2014, although payments continued when the ruling in favor of the GOP was appealed by the Obama administration. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that ending the payments would increase insurance premiums on the ACA exchanges by around 20 percentage points, resulting in increases in the premium tax credit subsidies, thereby adding nearly $200 billion to the budget deficits over the following decade. Critics argued the decision was part of a wider strategy to "sabotage" the ACA.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, often shortened to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or nicknamed Obamacare, is a United States federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. Together with the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 amendment, it represents the U.S. healthcare system's most significant regulatory overhaul and expansion of coverage since the passage of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965. Once the law was signed, provisions began taking effect, in a process that continued for years. Some provisions never took effect, while others were deferred for various periods.
Maine Community Health Options v. United States, 590 U.S. ___ (2020), was a United States Supreme Court case involving the expired Risk Corridors program of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), through which the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) mitigated losses of unprofitable healthcare plans through the profits of the profitable plans during the first three years of the program. Congress had passed legislation as riders in appropriations bills, which prevented the government from making payments to the unprofitable plans. Several of the insurers went bankrupt from the lack of payment, and multiple insurers sued the government to recover their funds on the basis the risk corridor was a commitment to be paid. The Federal Circuit Appeals Court rejected those claims, concluding that the subsequent appropriation riders absolved the government of its responsibility to pay. In the 8–1 decision that consolidated three of the subsequent appeals, the Supreme Court ruled that Congress's riders did not cancel the government's obligation under the ACA to pay the full amount to the unprofitable plans, and that the insurers had properly sought relief through a Tucker Act action in the Court of Federal Claims.
References
- ↑ Layton, Timothy J.; McGuire, Thomas G.; Sinaiko, Anna D. (February 2016). "Risk Corridors and Reinsurance in Health Insurance Marketplaces: Insurance for Insurers". American Journal of Health Economics. 2 (1): 66–95. doi:10.1162/AJHE_a_00034. ISSN 2332-3493. PMC 4785828 . PMID 26973861.
- ↑ Keith, Katie (April 28, 2020). "Supreme Court Rules That Insurers Are Entitled To Risk Corridors Payments: What The Court Said And What Happens Next". doi:10.1377/forefront.20200427.34146.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ↑ "Don't Force Taxpayers to Bail out Health Insurance Companies | Mercatus Center". www.mercatus.org. Retrieved 2023-02-23.
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