The ACA’s Tobacco Use Rating: Implementation, Inconsistencies and Ironies

Abstract

As the Affordable Care Act continues toward full implementation, the law’s complexity is on full display. As we have noted in earlier writings, the ACA continues the federal tradition of using a fragmented approach to allocating oversight responsibilities among federal and state regulators, while maintaining the role of private actors in health care insurance and delivery systems. The result is a dizzying array of plan types (self-insured, fully insured, small market, individual market, large market, grandfathered) subject to an equally dizzying blend of ACA, ERISA, and individual state requirements.