Health Affairs ’ October Issue: Insurance, The ACA, Care In India & More

The October issue of Health Affairs, a variety issue, includes several reports detailing aspects of the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) at a time when the latest census data shows the smallest-ever share of the US population without health insurance. The issue also includes a cluster of articles about the quality of health care in India. Marketplace premiums lower with narrower physician networks The introduction of health insurance Marketplaces under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been linked to the growth of restricted provider networks. While researchers have identified a correlation between narrower hospital networks and lower consumer costs, the association between breadth of physician networks and plan pricing has not been established. In the first study to explore that connection, Daniel Polsky of the University of Pennsylvania and coauthors examined data on 2014 silver plans in all US health insurance exchanges and found that the premiums of plans with a small network were 6.7 percent lower than premiums for otherwise equivalent plans with a large network. According to the authors, in markets with average-price plans, this translates to annual savings of $212–339 per person for an individual plan (depending on the consumer’s age) and up to $692 for a young family of four. Since the cost of health insurance premiums remains the main reason many Americans remain uninsured, the authors conclude that the use of narrow networks, with lower premium p...
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