“If you have a problem with car thieves in your community, the policy solution is not to make cars more expensive for residents to buy,” @sabrinacorlette.bsky.social said. www.politico.com/news/2025/12...

What fraud? State Obamacare officials don’t see the problem GOP subsidy opponents do

State health care exchanges say they have few problems with fraud. Instead of killing the subsidies, policy experts suggest fixing the federal exchanges instead.

politico.com

Apropos of nothing except every other news article

Coleman Drake@colemandrake.bsky.social · 10mo ago

🔥NEW WORKING PAPER ALERT🔥 Efficient Subsidy Targeting in the Health Insurance Marketplaces with @markmeiselbach.bsky.social & Dan Polsky, supported by @commonwealthfund.org & AHRQ. We study how states can efficiently allocate supplemental marketplace premium subsidies arxiv.org/abs/2510.13791

It sure would have been nice to have AI to talk about identification strategies with in grad school. It is SO good at this!

Do you have a paper on health insurance policy in the Marketplace, MA, or group markets that you would like to present @ashecon.bsky.social in a panel with @dmaanderson.bsky.social @paulshafer.bsky.social sky.social and me? If so, please shoot me an email or DM!

❗NEW RAPID POLICY ANALYSIS RESEARCH ❗ With @colemandrake.bsky.social & Dylan Nagy we analyzed the affordability implications of the new 9/4/25 announcement that all individuals with incomes >250% FPL can purchase CATASTROPHIC plans in the ACA academic.oup.com/healthaffair... 1/4

Will Expanding Catastrophic Coverage Eligibility Increase Marketplace Premium Affordability in 2026?

David M Anderson, PhD, Dylan Nagy, MS, Coleman Drake, PhD; Will Expanding Catastrophic Coverage Eligibility Increase Marketplace Premium Affordability in 2

academic.oup.com

🔥NEW WORKING PAPER ALERT🔥 Efficient Subsidy Targeting in the Health Insurance Marketplaces with @markmeiselbach.bsky.social & Dan Polsky, supported by @commonwealthfund.org & AHRQ. We study how states can efficiently allocate supplemental marketplace premium subsidies arxiv.org/abs/2510.13791

Efficient Subsidy Targeting in the Health Insurance Marketplaces

Enrollment in the Health Insurance Marketplaces created by the Affordable Care Act reached an all-time high of approximately 25 million Americans in 2025, roughly doubling since enhanced premium tax c...

arxiv.org

Decreasing the cost of purchasing coverage and reducing administrative burdens should lead to a substantial increase in zero claim enrollees balloon-juice.com/2025/08/18/z... #HealthPolicy #ACA

Balloon Juice - Zero use insurance policies

The Paragon Institute insists that people who don’t generate an insurance claim is a phantom enrollment or a fraudulent enrollment. A staggering 40 percent of enrollees in 94 percent actuarial value s...

balloon-juice.com

😆

John Mullahy@johnmullahy.bsky.social · 12mo ago

"The pill helped people lose up to about 12% of their body weight after more than a year of treatment.…The magnitude of weight loss fell short of what some analysts were predicting: 13% to 15% or more." Remarkable distinctions among small differences being drawn. www.wsj.com/health/pharm...

The latest Pitt HPM newsletter did a nice profile of the work that my colleague @colemandrake.bsky.social and I do on administrative burdens in health insurance, and why this is such an important area of health policy to understand. (No bias whatsoever.) heyzine.com/flip-book/77...

HPM researchers are focusing on burdens that keep people from insurance coverage and health care

Created with the Heyzine flipbook maker

heyzine.com

On the folly of relying too heavily (and overly narrowly) on OHIE — well-tread ground if you were on health policy Twitter in 2013 Glad @citizencohn.bsky.social posted this response letter when WSJ would not www.thebulwark.com/p/one-big-de...

Hard to overstate how useful this resource is. A few more fiddly Marketplace policies didn't make it into the Senate bill (e.g., SEP verification requirements) — probably because of Byrd concerns — but most consequential policies (including ending automatic re-enrollment with subsidies) remain

Tracking the Affordable Care Act Provisions in the 2025 Reconciliation Bill | KFF

KFF is tracking the Affordable Care Act (ACA) provisions in the 2025 federal budget bill, including changes related to enrollment, verifying eligiblity, and filing and reconciliation.

kff.org

It’s possible to just help people.

Ada Palmer@adapalmer.bsky.social · last yr.

England will expand free school meals to 500,000 more children. By 2026, all children in households receiving Universal Credit will be eligible for free school meals in England. The policy is projected to lift 100,000 children out of poverty. buff.ly/b0C1Q8b #ShareGoodNewsToo

New paper out with Andrew Anderson, @laurasamuel.bsky.social, and Kali Thomas in @jamahealthforum.bsky.social on "Medicare Advantage Part B Premium Givebacks and Enrollment" jamanetwork.com/journals/jam... @bsph-hpm.bsky.social @johnshopkinssph.bsky.social More below.

Medicare Advantage Part B Premium Givebacks and Enrollment

This study evaluates trends and expenditures in Medicare Advantage Part B premium givebacks and their association with plan enrollment.

jamanetwork.com

Another day, another reviewer at a major medical journal rejecting my difference-in-difference study because of time-invariant differences between treated and control groups

New RESEARCH with @colemandrake.bsky.social @dludwinski.com Sarah Avina and Dylan Nagy in @jama.com #HealthForum Examining #ZeroPremium plan turnover leads to less re-enrollment and more active choices to plan switch jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Coverage Retention and Plan Switching Following Switches From a Zero- to a Positive-Premium Plan

This cross-sectional study estimates how zero-premium silver plan turnover affected Marketplace coverage in 29 HealthCare.gov states after the implementation of the American Rescue Plan Act.

jamanetwork.com

The editorial boards of seven leading health econ journals are taking a stand today against political influence and ideological attacks on peer review and academia. No matter what you study we want to see your scholarship and will NEVER collaborate with suppression. Please repost.

Health Economics@hec-wiley.bsky.social · last yr.

The Editorial Boards of leading health economics journals are issuing a Joint Statement of Principles on Editorial Independence. In these troubled times some scholars worry their work might suffer ideological attack. We reaffirm our commitment to unfettered scholarship. Please repost.

turns out the GOP budget bill adds so much to deficits that it will automatically trigger cuts to Medicare (not just Medicaid). Older voters unlikely to be happy about this when word gets out democrats-budget.house.gov/news/press-r...

CBO Confirms GOP Budget Bill Triggers Medicare Cuts

Republican Plan Adds to the Deficit, Will Trigger Automatic Cuts Under Federal Law

democrats-budget.house.gov

Latest House bill text includes another blow to the ACA, ending “silver loading.” That would increase premiums by $350 for a hypothetical family. Here’s why: www.brookings.edu/articles/und...

Understanding Marketplace "Silver Loading"

Christen Linke Young explains a new proposal regarding cost-sharing reductions and how it could impact families who get coverage through the ACA.

brookings.edu

Republicans have given up on repealing “Obamacare,” but apparently they are still interested in significantly cutting it. Buried in reconciliation, provisions producing at least a 1/3 reduction in marketplace enrollment:

The Spotlight Is on Medicaid Cuts, But the ACA Marketplaces Could See a One-Third Cut in Enrollment

In his latest column, President and CEO Drew Altman shows how proposals contained in the House reconciliation bill could result in a one-third reduction in ACA Marketplace enrollment. “While all eyes ...

kff.org

Also if they weren't "pausing" a regulation that makes it easier for elderly and disabled people to dually enroll in Medicare and Medicaid. This policy is projected to result in 1.3 million fewer such people getting extra financial assistance from Medicaid to help pay for their meds and care.

Citizen Cohn / Jonathan Cohn@citizencohn.bsky.social · last yr.

It would be easier to believe all these Republicans who say they merely want to protect what they define as “the truly needy” if so many weren’t enthusiastic supporters of 2017 legislation to cut Medicaid for those very same people

If there is one thing to know this week, it’s this: The combined impact of proposed #Medicaid changes, reduced premium tax credits, and the establishing of new enrollment barriers would erode ACA coverage gains to the tune of 13.7 million more Americans being uninsured by 2034.

Larry Levitt@larrylevitt.bsky.social · last yr.

Many of the Medicaid proposals from House Republicans are technical and wonky, and will be difficult for the public to absorb.   What won’t be difficult to absorb: CBO’s estimate that the changes will increase the number of people without health insurance by at least 8.6 million.

#Section1332 #Reinsurance #ACA waivers would become much more expensive for states in a no #Silverload scenario @colemandrake.bsky.social @egolberstein.bsky.social @dludwinski.com @adrianna.bsky.social @standorn.bsky.social @charlesgaba.com balloon-juice.com/2025/05/08/s...

Balloon Juice - Section 1332 Reinsurance Waivers and Silverloading

We talked earlier this week that the Republican reconciliation bill may contain a direct payment appropriation for Cost-Sharing Reduction (CSR) subsidies in the ACA.  This would end the practice of “S...

balloon-juice.com

New today @healthaffairs.bsky.social w/ @dmaanderson.bsky.social, Naomi Zewde, and Adam Biener on how states can implement #BasicHealthPlan to continue offering quality, affordable coverage to low income subsidized Marketplace enrollees. @commonwealthfund.org www.healthaffairs.org/content/fore...

Well these are the most appropriate and reasonable award winners in the history of award winners. Congrats! @johnmullahy.bsky.social @edwardnorton.bsky.social

ASHEcon@ashecon.bsky.social · last yr.

Congratulations to John Mullahy and Edward C. Norton, co-winners of the 2025 Willard G. Manning Memorial Award for the Best Research in Health Econometrics. Learn more about the ASHEcon Awards here 👉 ashecon.org/2025-ashecon...

The child mental health crisis has existed for decades, but the link between poor mental health and youth suicide is mediated by policy and can be broken, from Janet Currie https://www.nber.org/papers/w33632

Worth noting that research that found that ACA insurance expansions saved lives occurred in a context of a good/improving labor market. This triple whammy would likely have real consequences for Americans' health.

Larry Levitt@larrylevitt.bsky.social · last yr.

A recession with job losses, combined with Medicaid cuts, combined with an end to enhanced ACA premium aid, would be quite a triple whammy for health coverage.

This is super compelling. Gonna try out this app. In a randomized trial, individuals with blocked internet access experience greater mental health. This replicates in a delayed treatment arm.

Arpit Gupta@arpitrage.bsky.social · last yr.

RCT suggests smartphones make adults dumb cc @paulgp.com @novosad.bsky.social academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...

See this chart for one stark example: NIH funding has dramatically slowed down. Grant awards are down *$3 billion* so far, compared to same time period last year I asked the White House to explain. “This is not a researcher entitlement program,” said an official, defending their new approach.