51Ƶ

Skip to main content

The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.

Subscribe Follow Us
  • Trump 2.0

    Trump 2.0

    • Agency Watch
    • State Watch
    • Rural Health Payout
  • Public Health

    Public Health

    • Vaccines
    • CDC & Disease
    • Environmental Health
    All Public Health
  • Audio Reports

    Audio Reports

    • What the Health?
    • Healthcare Helpline
    • 51Ƶ Health News Minute
    • An Arm and a Leg
    • Health Hub
    • HealthQ
    • Silence in Sikeston
    • Epidemic
    All Audio
  • Special Reports

    Special Reports

    • Bill Of The Month
    • Common Ground
    • Diagnosis: Debt
    • The Body Shops
    • Priced Out
    • Guns, Race, and Profit
    • Broken Rehab
    • Dead Zone
    • Denied
    • Opioid Settlement Tracking
    • Eleven Minutes
    All Special Reports
  • 51Ƶ

    51Ƶ

    • Elections
    • Healthcare Costs
    • Insurance
    • Prescription Drugs
    • Health Industry
    • Immigration
    • Reproductive Health
    • Technology
    • Rural Health
    • Race and Health
    • Aging
    • Mental Health
    • Affordable Care Act
    • Medicare
    • Medicaid
    • Children’s Health
    All Topics

  • Medicare Advantage Billing Probe
  • School Vaccine Mandates
  • Weight Loss Drugs Coverage
  • Opioid Settlement Money
  • Abortion Pill Access

Morning Briefing

Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations

  • Email

Tuesday, Jan 7 2020

Full Issue

Even In First Year Without Individual Mandate, Health Law Marketplaces Were Stable And Profitable, Analysis Finds

A key measure of insurers’ financial strength -- the percentage of premiums insurers collect that they pay back out in spending on claims -- remained relatively strong. Experts say these numbers demonstrate resiliency within the marketplaces despite political turmoil surrounding the health law. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court set a Friday deadline for the Trump administration to respond to Democrats' request to expedite the health law case.

The ObamaCare market is “stable” and profitable for insurers despite the repeal of the law’s mandate to have coverage, a new analysis finds. When Republicans repealed the health law’s mandate to have coverage in the 2017 tax law, many Democrats and some policy experts warned the move would cause chaos in the markets as healthy people dropped coverage, leaving only sick, expensive patients remaining.  (Sullivan, 1/6)

The individual market continues to go through a soft attrition: Premiums continue to increase, but only slightly, and enrollment is shrinking, again slightly. It’s not a death spiral, but the market is slowly being winnowed to a core customer base: People who get federal assistance to cover their premiums, and unsubsidized customers who don’t receive that help but need good health insurance. (Scott, 1/6)

The Supreme Court on Monday told the Trump administration and a group of states to respond by the end of the week to an effort by Democrats to expedite a challenge to a lower court ruling that struck down a key tenet of ObamaCare. The court asked the health care law's opponents to file a response to the motion by Friday afternoon. Democrats challenging the decision from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals that ruled the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate unconstitutional asked the Supreme Court last week to expedite a briefing schedule and to hear the case before the current term ends in June. (Neidig, 1/6)

And in other health law news —

Abortion is always a hot-button issue, but the result of the latest wrangling may at first sound trivial: Affordable Care Act health insurance plans that cover abortion — most don’t — will have to send a separate monthly bill for the part of the premium calculated to cover abortion care. Even men with such plans will get a separate bill. Abortion is the only medical service that must be broken out separately by ACA plans. (McCullough, 1/6)

This is part of the Morning Briefing, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.
Newsletter icon

Sign Up For Our Newsletter

Stay informed by signing up for the Morning Briefing and other emails:

Recent Morning Briefings

  • Friday, August 7
  • Thursday, August 6
  • Wednesday, August 5
  • Tuesday, August 4
  • Monday, August 3
  • Friday, July 31
More Morning Briefings
RSS Feeds
  • Podcasts
  • Special Reports
  • Morning Briefing
  • About Us
  • Republish Our Content
  • Contact Us

Follow Us

  • RSS

Sign up for emails

Join our email list for regular updates based on your personal preferences.

Sign up
  • 51Ƶ
  • Privacy Policy

© 2026 51Ƶ