States Adopt Health Reform

Two years into the Affordable Care Act, almost every state in the union has implemented at least one item from the law’s early market reforms, the Patient’s Bill of Rights, an analysis from the Commonwealth Fund has found. Of the 49 states that have taken some action, 23 (and the District of Columbia) passed legislation or enacted regulations addressing at least one of the reforms. Twelve states addressed all reforms. An additional 15 issued guidance for insurers, and 11 states took no action but reported that regulators were reviewing insurers’ policy forms for compliance with reforms. Only Arizona has done nothing to enact ACA reforms

"The vast majority of states have been very busy on health reform, at least on these early market reforms,"said Katie Keith, lead author of the analysis in an interview.

As the law currently stands, if states don’t implement the Patient’s Bill of Rights by Jan. 1, 2014, the federal government will do it for them. States that have not acted on these ACA reforms already may have stronger patient protections or their laws already may allow ACA enforcement.

–Frances Correa