On October 22, 2018, Juliana Reno was quoted in an article in Law360 about how the White House recently issued new guidance on the Affordable Care Act (ACA), offering states wide latitude to steer consumers away from the law's robust health insurance and toward cheaper policies.
The new guidance focused on an ACA section that allows "waivers for state innovation" as long as certain guardrails are respected and requires states to show that their alternative approaches will provide insurance that is "at least as comprehensive," "at least as affordable," and likely to cover "at least a comparable number" of people as the ACA insurance.
Under the old guidance, states with waivers had to ensure their approaches would result in at least as many people obtaining comprehensive, affordable coverage, while the new guidance, according to the article, does not connect the guardrails and overall coverage can’t be declined, but the type of coverage doesn’t matter much.
Commenting on the new ACA guidance, Ms. Reno said that the proposals "definitely reflect an aggressive interpretation of the ACA's statutory provisions."