Grant #75030

Grantee: Wake Forest University Health Sciences

PI: Mark Hall, J.D.

Grant Period: 12/01/2017 – 8/31/2018

Budget: $149,983

This project is funded as part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s solicitation, “Research in Transforming Health and Health Care Systems,” which seeks to build the evidence base on the potential effects of policies or policy changes intended to transform health. The goal of this project is to inform lawmakers and the health policy community about a full range of issues and options relating to stabilization and strengthening of the individual health insurance market. While the Affordable Care Act’s reforms of the individual insurance market worked well for the first two years, market conditions began to worsen substantially in 2016, prompting some states to consider or implement a range of market stabilization strategies, such as retrospective reinsurance, prospective reinsurance, and high-risk pools. In this study, the researchers will develop a series of case studies that explore strategies states are pursuing or considering to stabilize health insurance markets. The case studies will focus on 10 states representing a range of geographic, market, socio-economic, and public policy characteristics as well as market stabilization strategies of particular interest, and involve interviews with key informants in each state, such as health insurers, regulators, health policy analysts, and consumer advocates, among others. The researchers will also conduct in-depth interviews with a dozen national experts. Deliverables will include a project work plan, final narrative, and financial reports. The grantee will also produce paper(s) suitable for publication and present findings at national research meetings and to other stakeholder audiences as appropriate, including policymakers at the federal, state, and local levels, as part of the deliverables for this grant.

 

Publications

Stabilizing and strengthening the individual health insurance market: A view from ten states
Brookings Institution | July 2018