Marketplaces

The health insurance marketplaces were designed to help individuals in need of health insurance find and enroll in appropriate, affordable coverage. Health insurance marketplaces are run by either the federal government (the federally facilitated marketplace), by individual states, or through a state-federal partnership. Health plans sold in the marketplaces are called qualified health plans (QHPs) because they are certified to have ACA-required health benefits (such as family planning services without cost-sharing), meet cost-sharing requirements, and have annual limits for consumers’ annual out-of-pocket health spending.

Healthcare.gov and state-based marketplace website portals are intended to serve as consumers’ access points to enroll in commercial or public health insurance programs such as Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). The marketplaces are supposed to use a single, streamlined application to sort households and individuals into the commercial or public coverage that will be most appropriate for them. 

NFPRHA's Work

NFPRHA remains an active voice for family planning in the regulatory process around marketplace implementation and administration. Among other priorities, NFPRHA continues its work to ensure that health insurance plans in the marketplaces cover the broad range of contraceptives required under the ACA and that other regulations meet the needs of family planning providers and their patients.

Resources

NFPRHA Fact Sheets

• Health Insurance Marketplaces: Top 5 Things Family Planning Providers Should Know (PDF) - A fact sheet offering ways for family planning providers to be involved in the marketplaces (Summer 2013).

NFPRHA Regulatory Comments

• NFPRHA Comments on ACA Regulatory Guidance (HTML) - NFPRHA comments, by topic, on ACA regulations and guidance that will affect family planning service provision and access.

Family Planning Matters Newsletter

• What is Next for Family Planning Providers in the Federally Facilitated Marketplace? (PDF) -NFPRHA staff-authored article about opportunities and challenges in the ACA's federally facilitated marketplaces and how they affect family planing providers (Early Winter 2014).
  
  
• Utah, Oregon, and Missouri: Snapshots of ACA Implementation (PDF) -NFPRHA staff-authored article spotlighting state progress toward ACA implementation (Fall 2012).

For additional resources & information, access NFPRHA fact sheets and federal comments by issue or read NFPRHA's publications and recent press statements.