Health Reform: Covering 50-64 Year-Olds

Health Reform:
Covering 50-64 Year-Olds
January 24, 2011

This forum explored how health reform (the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act—also known as ACA) impacts adults 50-64, especially older workers and early retirees.

 See a Webcast of the forum

Beginning in 2014, the ACA aims to make life easier for the uninsured through state-based insurance exchanges and subsidies. But the ACA also contains provisions that may be especially helpful right now for uninsured 50-64 year olds. One provision, the Early Retirement Reinsurance Program (ERRP), provides incentives for employers to maintain retiree health benefits for those aged 50-64. And because of their higher incidence of chronic conditions, those aged 50-64 are more likely to be able to qualify for the ACA-created Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan (PCIP), through which people with health conditions that make private coverage unaffordable may be able to obtain coverage.

To what extent are boomers at risk of being uninsured? Will ERRP funding last to 2014? To answer these and related questions, the Alliance for Health Reform and PPI sponsored a Capitol Hill briefing, featuring:

• Richard Popper, HHS Office of Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight
• John Rother, AARP
• Sara Collins, The Commonwealth Fund
• Joseph Antos, American Enterprise Institute
• Ed Howard of the Alliance for Health Reform (moderator.)

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