Open enrollment for coverage under the new healthcare marketplaces
is set to open in 5 months, and opponents of the law are raising new concerns
with the plans. Recently, CQ reports that Republicans
in the House of Representatives have questioned the authority of the administration
to provide “in-person assisters” in the program. The assistants, separate than
the navigators provided for in the law, are also meant to help participants in
the exchanges apply for insurance.
Gary Cohen, the Director of the Center for
Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight acknowledged that an assister was “essentially
the same” as a navigator. Navigators are paid with federal funds, however, and
states that are running their own exchanges are barred from federal money. Still,
a mandate of all exchanges is to provide outreach, education, and enrollment assistance.
This poses an issue for states whose exchanges have not yet become independently
viable.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee held a joint hearing
earlier this month with and the subcommittees on
Energy Policy, Health Care and Entitlements and on Economic Growth, Job
Creation and Regulatory Affairs. After, the chairmen sent a letter to HHS
Secretary Sebelius expressing concern over the role of the in-person assisters.
They stated that they didn’t see any statutory authority for the assister
program, and that there is no functional difference between the assisters and
the navigators.
The Department of Health and Human Services
acknowledged that they received the letter on Tuesday, and that they were
gathering the information to respond.
No comments:
Post a Comment