Despite Rising Scrutiny of Insurers, Experts Predict Only Modest Policy Action

January 5

Although 2024 features both a presidential election and a split Congress — limiting any potential policy changes that could affect health insurers — the industry is facing mounting criticism regarding some of its business practices. Therefore, managed care organizations this year will be lobbying, perhaps largely behind the scenes, to not only mitigate that pressure but also to set the stage for future policy battles, industry observers tell AIS Health, a division of MMIT.

“I don’t think there’s a huge health insurance reform issue in the immediate future, but I do think [insurers] kind of exited 2023 in a hail of bullets,” says Katherine Hempstead, senior policy adviser at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

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Health Plan Weekly

Leslie Small

Leslie has been working in journalism since 2009 and reporting on the health care industry since 2014. She has covered the many ups and downs of the Affordable Care Act exchanges, the failed health insurer mega-mergers, and hundreds of other storylines spanning subjects such as Medicaid managed care, Medicare Advantage, employer-sponsored insurance, and prescription drug coverage. As the managing editor of Health Plan Weekly and Radar on Drug Benefits, she writes and edits for both publications while overseeing a small team of reporters who also focus on the managed care sector. Before joining AIS Health, she was a senior editor for the e-newsletter Fierce Health Payer, and she started her career as a copy editor at multiple local newspapers. She graduated with a dual degree in journalism and political science from Penn State University.