Biden Has One Last Obamacare Policy To Roll Out

published December 20, 2023

To help you understand what the Biden administration wants to accomplish regarding Obamacare and what we expect to happen with healthcare policy in the future, our highly experienced Kiplinger Letter team will keep you abreast of the latest developments and forecasts (Get a free issue of The Kiplinger Letter or subscribe). You'll get all the latest news first by subscribing, but we will publish many (but not all) of the forecasts a few days afterward online. Here’s the latest…

The Biden administration will implement one last major Obamacare policy: The payment parameters will require all states to synchronize open enrollment if they operate their own Obamacare exchanges, as 18 states plus D.C. currently do.

Most of these states already have open enrollment periods that run from November 1 to January 15, as will soon be required, although Idaho and New York have different dates.

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The rules will also require states to set maximum “time and distance” standards, limiting how long patients must travel to access in-network healthcare. The rules would also require states with their own marketplaces to align better with Uncle Sam. According to federal officials, 25% of states currently have no such standards in place but will need to comply with these new standards beginning in 2025.

Uncle Sam will also be adopting new standards for federal insurance exchanges that states may need to adopt at some point, such as limiting patient wait times. But many of these changes could be on the chopping block if Joe Biden loses in 2024, as Biden’s prospective GOP opponents are still keen on overhauling Obamacare.

This forecast first appeared in The Kiplinger Letter, which has been running since 1923 and is a collection of concise weekly forecasts on business and economic trends, as well as what to expect from Washington, to help you understand what’s coming up to make the most of your investments and your money. Subscribe to The Kiplinger Letter.

Housiaux covers the White House and state and local government for The Kiplinger Letter. Before joining Kiplinger in June 2016, he lived in Sioux Falls, SD, where he was the forum editor of Augustana University's student newspaper, the Mirror. He also contributed stories to the Borgen Project, a Seattle-based nonprofit focused on raising awareness of global poverty. He earned a B.A. in history and journalism from Augustana University.