Stabilizing and Strengthening ACA Nongroup Markets

What short-term and long-term policy approaches can stabilize and strengthen the ACA marketplaces?

The Issue

Researchers analyzed both short-term policies to stabilize the market and longer-term approaches to address structural issues of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces.

Key Findings

• In the short term: researchers recommend that the federal government commit to paying cost-sharing reductions created by the ACA to benefit low-income enrollees, enforcing the individual mandate, increasing outreach and enrollment assistance, and permanently reinstate the ACA’s nongroup reinsurance program.
• In the long-term: researchers suggest taking steps to grow nongroup insurance markets, making them less expensive for consumers in both premiums and out-of-pocket costs and less risky for insurers.

Conclusion

In order to stabilize and strengthen individual insurance markets, policymakers must work to shore up marketplaces through maintaining and adjusting the ACA’s provisions as needed in the short term while keeping their eyes on generating long-term growth in the individual markets.

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