2010
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Medicaid Performance Bonuses Awarded
(Editor’s Note: This blog was originally posted on Huffington Post and Mom’s Rising.) By Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services For Amanda from Tigard, Oregon, one of the worst things about going without health insurance was worrying that something might happen to her son Jacob when she couldn’t afford a doctor. Jacob,…
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CMS Spreads Holiday Cheer to States Doing An Outstanding Job of Improving Enrollment of Uninsured Children in Medicaid
The holidays are looking a little brighter for fifteen states that are receiving performance bonuses from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for their successful efforts to improve enrollment of uninsured children in Medicaid. These states should be proud of their efforts, which are particularly impressive in the context of the budget problems confronting…
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Insurers Revisit Decision to Abandon Child-Only Policies in California
By Jocelyn Guyer At CCF, things are starting to get very quiet as the Holiday Break approaches and I hadn’t planned on doing any more blogs this week, but this story from the Los Angeles Times is well worth highlighting. As a result of the fantastic work of California advocates and their allies in state government,…
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Medicaid Matters: Ensuring a Strong Pediatric Benefit for Kids in Medicaid
Last week I attended a meeting of a new EPSDT Working Group convened by Cindy Mann, Deputy Administrator of CMS and top dog at Medicaid and CHIP. EPSDT stands for Early Periodic Screening Diagnosis and Treatment – Medicaid’s comprehensive benefit for children — the definitive standard of pediatric care recommended by the American Academy of…
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Comments Sought on CMS Proposal to Pay 90% Match on Medicaid Eligibility Systems
By Jocelyn Guyer As I was having a “chat” with my husband earlier this week about who was supposed to have come up with a dinner plan, I started thinking about the similarities between married life and health care reform implementation. (Well, to be honest, this wasn’t my very first thought when I came home…
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Let’s Have an “Adult Conversation” about Opting Out of Medicaid
By Anne Dunkelberg, Center for Public Policy Priorities, Texas Just last August, Texas advocates chuckled and sighed along with our Arizona colleagues when the Onion ran the headline, “Texas Vows to Reclaim Title of Most Regressive State from Arizona.” That satire piece included references to our Governor Rick Perry’s very real 2009 statements about the…
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Florida v. Sebelius – View from Pensacola
By Anne Swerlick, Florida Legal Services Last week I had a front row seat in Judge Vinson’s Pensacola federal courtroom where arguments were heard on cross motions for summary judgment in Florida v. Sebelius. In contrast to the rather modest number of spectators in the courtroom, there was literally an army of lawyers from all…
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Texas Secedes! And Other Takeaways from the Final NAIC Votes on ACA Implementation Issues
Yesterday the NAIC Executive Committee and Plenary had their final call for the year. They had a long agenda, including passing a Model State law to create an insurance Exchange and Model Laws to implement ACA’s early insurance reforms (such as elimination of pre-existing condition exclusions for children, dependent coverage up to age 26, and restrictions on…
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Unprecedented Results for Kids Coverage in Massachusetts: Lessons for the Nation
By Brian Rosman, Health Care for All Massachusetts This week Massachusetts officials released the latest data from their 2010 state insurance survey. The survey provided continued good news: overall, 98.1 percent of all Massachusetts residents have health coverage. This compares to a national insurance rate of around 83 percent. Remarkably, insurance coverage increased from 2009, despite…
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Can’t Wait to See What It’s Like to Get Health Insurance Through an Exchange?
Waiting for 2014 is a bit like being a child excitedly anticipating Christmas or Hanukkah. It just can’t get here quickly enough. Thinking about the concept of “no wrong door” and streamlined, paperless enrollment in Medicaid and CHIP certainly leaves me with visions of sugarplums dancing in my head. As we approach the holidays, our…
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2010 Finish Line Flash Editions
Since Finish Line was launched in 2007, 1.3 million more children have secured health care coverage bringing the uninsured rate for children to historic lows.
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Rate Review: States Can Help Make Health Insurance More Affordable
Thirty-nine percent increase in California. Fifty-six percent increase in Michigan. Forty-seven percent increase in Connecticut. Twenty-one percent increase in New Mexico. In recent years consumers have faced unprecedented hikes in their health insurance premiums. In many cases, these hikes are driven by the increasing costs of medical care. But what happens when an insurance company…
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Opportunity Now to Engage on Establishing a State Exchange
By Liz Arjun Last week I was at a meeting where we were joined by Joel Ario, the HHS official who is overseeing implementation of the new Health Insurance Exchanges, the vehicle that is expected to provide coverage for close to 30 million Americans in 2014. We had a chance to ask him questions and…
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Experts Opine on the Future of Medicaid
By Joe Touschner The New York Times’ “Room for Debate” feature recently addressed a topic near and dear to those of us concerned with the health of low-income children and families: the future of Medicaid. Six participants from across the ideological spectrum weighed in on how the nation should address the challenges faced by this…
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VA Judge Rules Against ACA Individual Responsibility Provision
Today, U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson became the first federal judge to find a provision of the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional. If you’re keeping a scorecard, it is now 2 to 1 in favor of the ACA. Two other federal judges have upheld the law. This certainly won’t be the last scrimmage before the…
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Congress Acts to Change ACA Subsidy Structure
By Joe Touschner We’re less than a year beyond the passage of the Affordable Care Act and still three full years from the implementation of state exchanges and their federal premium subsidies. But already Congress has decided to make some significant changes to how the premium tax credits would work and, in the process, could…
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New Transparency Standards Set for Mini-Meds
Yesterday, CCF’s guest blogger Aaron Smith of Young Invincibles wrote about some of the problems with so-called “mini-meds” or limited benefit plans. These are products that can’t even be called “insurance” because they provide so little protection to patients – some of them have limits on what they’ll cover as low as $2000 per year. Unfortunately, for millions…
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Young Adult’s Perspective on the Problem with Mini-Meds
Editor’s Note: Aaron Smith, co-founder of the Young Invincibles, brings a fresh perspective to the old issue of mini-med plans. He testified before a Senate Committee on this topic last week so we asked him to share his views with our readers. By Aaron Smith, co-founder of Young Invincibles There has been a great deal…
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States Can Reap Significant Savings By Implementing ACA
A new report by the Urban Institute and funded by First Focus finds that states could in fact, save significant dollars by successfully implementing health reform. This new report stands in stark contrast to other recent reports that states will bear significant costs to implement health reform. These potential cost-savings couldn’t be more welcome news…
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Health Delivery System Listening Session Coming to a Region Near You
HHS and the CMS Innovation Center want to hear from you on how to improve the health care delivery system. In the spirit of transparency and collaboration, they are hosting regional listening sessions. They kicked off the listening tour with Region Five (Chicago) on Monday and are headed to Regions Three (Philadelphia) and Ten (Seattle) later…