States will be learning labs for health exchanges

LONGMONT – Federal health-care reform rules may go into effect on Jan. 1, but their effect really won’t be felt for decades, said Jandel Allen-Davis, the lunch keynote speaker at Pulse: What’s Next with Health-Care Reform?, presented Tuesday by the Boulder County Business Report at the Plaza Convention Center in Longmont.

But becauseJan. 1 marks the “end of the beginning” of federal health-care reform rules, industry predictions are important, Allen-Davis said.

Allen-Davis is vice president for government and external relations at Kaiser Permanente Colorado in Denver. The Affordable Care Act was passed by Congress and signed into law in 2010. All uninsured Americans must buy health insurance that goes into effect by Jan. 1 or pay tax penalties, under new federal rules.

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In the future, insurance brokers will play an even bigger role in how health insurance is sold, Allen-Davis said. Consumers who have never had insurance in the past are making “an important and confusing purchase for the first time in their lives,” and they need help navigating their coverage options, Allen-Davis said. An estimated 700,000 Coloradans are uninsured, according to statistics from the state’s Connect for Health Colorado online insurance marketplace, which is designed to help those people compare their health insurance options and to buy health insurance plans that are eligible for federal tax credits.

There will be more delays in implementing Affordable Care Act rules, Allen-Davis said. President Obama recently said he would extend the deadline by a year for small businesses to comply with the rules. The federal marketplace website, healthcare.gov, has been plagued with problems since it was rolled out in October.

States will continue to be the “learning labs” for the online insurance exchanges, as they’re called, Allen-Davis said. She called on business leaders and others in the community to get involved in the national conversation about health insurance policy.

“We did have 50 million people who didn’t have insurance, and all of us in this room in one way or another is paying for that,” Allen-Davis said. “As consumers of health care, keep reading, keep learning, and bring up issues that you’re seeing.”

At the same time, health-care reform changes are happening rapidly right now, Allen-Davis said. Payment reform that ties payments to outcomes rather than volume is one such change, she said. Changes in population health are expected to affect reform as well, Allen-Davis said. A rapid rise in obesity has analysts predicting that this generation of children may be the first to have shorter life spans than their parents, she said. As the population ages, providers continue to discuss expensive end-of-life options, too, she said.