In a little more than two
months, individuals and small businesses will be able to enroll in
health plans offered by the Health Insurance Exchanges (HIEs)
created under the Affordable Care Act. By the deadline of January 1,
2014, all states must have an operational individual and small-business
exchange. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that nine million
people will obtain coverage through HIEs in 2014, a number predicted to
rise to 22 million people by 2022.
Will that mean more patients
for anesthesiologists? Or at least more insured patients? On the face
of things, it seems obvious that better population coverage will lead
to a greater number of patients for whom insurance will pay
providers. The current state of development, or lack of development, of
HIEs in many localities, however, together with the July 2nd
announcement by the U.S. Treasury Department that it will postpone until
2015 the mandate requiring that employers with 50 or...
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