Health Insurance

To explore whether and how the NSA has affected insurer-provider dynamics, contract negotiations, and payment rates, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) asked RAND to conduct discussions with stakeholders. In this report, RAND summarizes the approach exploring these topics, the themes that emerged from our discussions, and areas for additional inquiry.

During the pandemic period, telehealth utilization increased among both urban and rural enrollees in Medicaid, with urban enrollees sustaining greater gains in telehealth utilization at the end of 2021. This Issue Brief is part of a series of ASPE Issue Briefs examining changes in Medicaid utilization of services delivered via telehealth by enrollee and provider characteristics.

Prescription drug prices are a top concern for policymakers and the public, but little data is available on prescription drug prices or other costs that contribute to premiums for commercial drug coverage.

This second report focuses largely on updating pre-NSA trends in claims data presented in the first report.

National estimates indicate that streamlined renewal options for Medicaid beneficiaries with incomes below 100 percent of the federal poverty level and without an ex parte income data source would provide timely and accurate eligibility determinations.

In order to support state and local outreach efforts, ASPE has developed state, county, and local estimates of the number of U.S. residents without health insurance and their demographic characteristics, using the most recent Census data available from the 2023 American Community Survey (ACS).

This research report describes patterns in insurance coverage and uninsurance rates in rural and urban areas, reviews non-financial challenges in accessing care faced by many rural residents, and describes disparities in health outcomes between urban and rural areas.

This issue brief shows coverage gains among young adults under the Affordable Care Act, the American Rescue Plan, and the Inflation Reduction Act. The uninsured rate among this group declined by more than half, from 31.5 percent in 2009 to 13.1 percent in 2023, as employer-sponsored dependent coverage increased by over 20 percent.

The Inflation Reduction Act established a limit on out-of-pocket spending (“the 2024 cap”) for enrollees with very high prescription drug spending in Medicare Part D, for the first time in the history of the program.

This issue brief presents Marketplace plan selections by race and ethnicity among 2015-2024 Open Enrollment Period enrollees in HealthCare.gov states using combined self-reported race and ethnicity information with imputed data for missing values.