By: Wayne Turner and Héctor Hernández-Delgado
Executive Summary
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) established a comprehensive set of ten Essential Health Benefits (EHB) that most health plans must cover. Under federal rules, states can select a benchmark plan that defines what the ten benefits look like in each state. However, many states still have no process for selecting and updating their EHB benchmark plans. This issue brief identifies the best practices from the handful of states that have added or improved benefits by updating their EHB benchmark plans. By engaging consumers and other stakeholders in a transparent and data-driven public process, state regulators can address unmet health care needs and help close coverage gaps by expanding benefits through the EHB benchmarking process.
