By JoAnn Volk, Kevin Lucia, and Justin Giovannelli
The health care provisions of the budget reconciliation law, combined with newly adopted Trump administration regulations for Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace coverage, impose harsh enrollment barriers and higher costs on people who rely on the individual market for coverage. Among the millions affected are workers who have been sent to shop on their own in the individual market using employer-funded Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangements (ICHRAs). As the policy changes to the individual market take effect, workers with these accounts will face a market that is harder to navigate and far more costly than it has been in the years since ICHRAs were created by federal rules.
Created in 2019, ICHRAs have been a key part of some proposals to improve coverage for employees. Though little-used to date, they may become more attractive to employers in the face of rising health care costs. But in order to be an attractive option, employers and their workers need to be able to rely on a stable, affordable, accessible individual market.
In a new post for the Commonwealth Fund’s To the Point blog, CHIR’s JoAnn Volk, Kevin Lucia, and Justin Giovannelli look at whether and how newly adopted changes to the market will affect the use – and usability – of ICHRAs.
You can read the full post here.
