On October 23, 2023, Paragon’s 2025 health policy roadmap and a recent Paragon paper written by Gregg Fann and Daniel Cruz were referenced in the Inside Health Policy article “Exchange Enrollment Poised To Increase, VA’s SBM Goes Live, Think Tank Floats GOP Policy Agenda.”
From the article:
The Paragon Health Institute released a report examining the efficiency of the ACA’s tax credit as initially structured and factored in several federal policy changes — including the Trump administration’s decision to stop directly paying for cost-sharing reductions and the enhanced credits under the Inflation Reduction Act. The paper finds the subsidies are inefficient and have cost the government three times more than expected while enrollment in the ACA has been far lower than initially projected.
Separately, Paragon unveiled a 2025 health policy agenda via a series of one-page proposals on Medicare, Medicaid, private health coverage, and public health that they say could be useful for any of the GOP presidential candidates. The think tank pushes for more efficient spending on subsides, more choices among non-ACA compliant plans, and promotes directly subsidizing consumers via health savings accounts instead of transferring funds to insurers and greater use of HSAs in general as well as more transparency. Paragon also supports Medicaid work requirements, equalizing federal Medicaid payments to states by ending the higher FMAP for the expansion population, extending Medicare beneficiaries’ choice of plans through Medicare Advantage, reining in overpayments, and more.
