The Three R's: Making Insurance Markets Work
<p>For some, the "Three R's" evoke the smell of chalk dust and sepia-tinged images of children’s heads bent over multiplication and long division problems. Mastery of reading, 'riting and 'rithmetic, however, in no way guarantees you’ll grasp the intricate web of regulations underlying the Affordable Care Act, where the Three R's refer to something very different: risk corridors, reinsurance, and risk adjustment. </p><p>In his latest <a href="/blog/2014/three-rs-health-insurance">"Reflecting on Health Reform" blog post,</a> Commonwealth Fund President David Blumenthal, M.D., examines these three interdependent programs that help protect health insurance companies against unpredictable losses and keep consumers' premiums from spiraling out of control in the health reform law's early years. </p>
<p>"The Three R's would likely have remained invisible to the public if the law’s critics hadn’t labeled them taxpayer bailouts of the health insurance industry," he writes. "Even a cursory glance at the evidence shows they're no such thing."</p>
<p>Visit <a href="/blog/2014/three-rs-health-insurance">commonwealthfund.org</a> for the complete post. </p>