CBO’s Score for House Repeal-and-Replace Bill Reminds Us Why Insurance Markets Need Regulation
<p>The Trump administration has been arguing for months that the health insurance market reforms of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are not working and are even harming consumers. But four years of data on Americans’ experiences in a reformed individual market provide considerable evidence to the contrary, says The Commonwealth Fund’s Sara Collins in a new post for <em>To the Point</em>. </p><p>The marketplaces’ current problems stem from lack of certainty about the administration’s actions regarding the enforcement of the ACA's insurance market reforms, Collins writes, rather than the reforms themselves. The importance of these reforms was underscored last week in the Congressional Budget Office’s analysis of the House-passed American Health Care Act, the Republican ACA repeal-and-replace bill, which included an amendment allowing states to undo some of the reforms. </p>
<p>“Decades of experience with the individual market in the U.S. has shown that without considerable regulation the market simply cannot function for all those who rely on it,” she says.</p>