Month: September 2016

Announcements from the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy

Posted on
September 2, 2016

What’s New

New Report:  Rural-Urban Differences in Coverage from Private Insurers.  Today, the Minnesota Rural Health Research Center released a new brief on the number of insurers available to consumers in rural and urban counties through the Federally-Facilitated Marketplace (FFM).  The researchers found that, of the 2,512 counties served by FFMs, 34% had only one or two insurers offering coverage. Of those, 80% of the counties were rural.

To access the MN brief, visit: http://rhrc.umn.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Marketplace-Insurer-Participation.pdf

In June of this year, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation released analysis of the Affordable Care Act’s impact on individuals living in rural communities.  Key highlights from that report:

  • Coverage: Rural individuals, like those living in urban and suburban areas, have seen large coverage gains under the ACA – about an 8 percentage point increase from before the first open enrollment period through early 2015.
  • Premium tax credits: Among the 88 percent of rural HealthCare.gov consumers with premium tax credits, the average net monthly premium increased by $5, or 4 percent, between 2015 and 2016.
  • Access to care: Individuals in rural areas have seen improvements in access to care; the share who report being unable to afford needed care declined by nearly 6 percentage points from before the first open enrollment period through early 2015.

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