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2012

  • 23 States Receive CHIPRA Performance Bonuses for Removing Barriers and Enrolling Children in Health Coverage

    Joan Alker

    Demonstrating that covering kids is still a very high priority across the nation, twenty-three states earned CHIPRA performance bonuses for improving access to children’s health coverage and successfully enrolling eligible children. The states will split a total of nearly $306 million. The 23 states include:  Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, Montana,…

  • Participation Among Children and Parents -Urban Institute Presentation

    CCFadmin

    Participation Among Children and Parents -Urban Institute Presentation

  • Kaiser Releases Two Reports on Medicaid Reimbursement Rate Increases

    CCFadmin

    By Wesley Prater See CCF’s latest fact sheet on Medicaid Access Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid reimbursement rates will increase to at least 100% of Medicare rates in the 2013 and 2014 calendar years.  The federal government will fund 100% of the difference in cost between what a state’s Medicaid rate was on…

  • State Trends: Per Person Costs of Private Insurance Rising Faster than Per Person Medicare Spending

    Karina Wagnerman

    A new report from the Commonwealth Fund analyzes state trends in private employer-sponsored insurance from 2003 to 2011 for the under-65 population. Right now there is a lot of attention on the federal deficit and Medicare. What is not receiving a lot of attention is that the costs of private insurance spending per person have…

  • Essential Health Benefit and Market Reform Rules Comments Are Due December 26th – CCF Shares Draft Comments

    CCFadmin

    By Joe Touschner In my last post on HHS’s proposed rules, I mentioned that, like the holidays, the comment deadline would be here before we knew it.  Well here we are in the middle of the holiday season and the December 26 deadline is right around the corner.  It’s likely not something that was on…

  • Nevada Will Accept Affordable Care Act’s Option to Extend Medicaid Coverage to More Uninsured People

    Guest

    By Denise Tanata Ashby, Children’s Advocacy Alliance, Nevada On Tuesday, December 11, Governor Brian Sandoval (R-NV) announced that he will support extending Medicaid coverage to more uninsured Nevadans.  This is a big win for Nevadans as an estimated 78,000 additional residents will now have access to vital health care services.  In a recent study by…

  • Green Light Comes Early for Six Health Insurance Exchanges

    Guest

    By Sarah Dash, Georgetown University Center on Health Insurance Reform On Monday, December 10th, the Department of Health and Human Services granted conditional approval to six states seeking to establish state-based health insurance exchanges: Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Oregon, and Washington. The decisions came earlier than the January 1, 2013, statutory deadline for HHS to…

  • The Future is Bright for Health Reform

    Karina Wagnerman

    Last week, I attended a panel organized by students at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute on the future of health reform with John Podesta of the Center for American Progress and moderated by Professor Judy Feder. Panelists agreed that last month’s election results were good for the future of the Affordable Care Act and the…

  • The Wait is Over: HHS Clarifies Terms of the Medicaid Expansion, Approves Six State Exchanges

    Elisabeth Wright Burak

    This afternoon, Secretary Sebelius sent a letter to governors along with a list of answers to 39 Frequently Asked Questions related to the Medicaid expansion, exchanges and market reforms.  As Joan Alker has posted before, we’ve been waiting patiently for the Medicaid expansion terms.   As we learn more, our bloggers will have more to say…

  • The Medical Loss Ratio Rule – Report Highlights Savings for Consumers

    Sabrina Corlette

    By Sabrina Corlette, Center on Health Insurance Reform The Commonwealth Fund recently released a study evaluating insurers’ responses to the medical loss ratio (MLR) rules under the Affordable Care Act. The study’s authors found that the MLR has resulted in a total of $1.5 billion in savings from reducing insurers’ administrative costs and rebates for consumers. The MLR, often…

  • Covering Parents is Good For Kids: New Report Looks at Medicaid/CHIP Participation Rates

    Karina Wagnerman

    Editor’s Note:  Welcome to the fifth in a series of blogs on how covering parents helps children.  Previous blogs on this topic have pointed out that extending Medicaid coverage to parents will provide a good value to states; maternal, infant and early childhood home visiting programs help prevent child maltreatment; covering parents can help depressed mothers get treatment…

  • Moving Forward on Medicaid Opportunity is the Right Thing to Do – A Partial Expansion Would Leave Too Many Behind

    Guest

    By Kelsey McCowan Heilman, Staff Attorney, New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty In an earlier blog post, I explained that extending Medicaid coverage to more low-income individuals and families as envisioned in the Affordable Care Act would boost New Mexico’s state coffers by about $500 million dollars.  But it would do more than that.…

  • Arizona’s Waiver Request to Limit Medicaid Extension Raises Questions

    Joan Alker

    A question on the minds of waiver watchers these days is whether the Obama Administration can, will, or should allow states to do a partial expansion of Medicaid to 100% of FPL for childless adults and parents who are newly eligible under the Affordable Care Act. Remember, Section 1115 demonstration waiver authority was created to…

  • Accepting ACA’s Medicaid Extension Would Save New Mexico $500 Million and Create Healthier, More Prosperous Communities

    Guest

    By Kelsey McCowan Heilman, Staff Attorney, New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty Like many states, New Mexico has yet to make a decision about the “Medicaid Opportunity,” the chance to extend healthcare coverage under the federal healthcare reform law to most adults earning less than about $15,000 for a single adult or $32,000 for…

  • Essential Health Benefit Regs Invite Comment, Provide New Info on Habilitative Services and Cost-Sharing

    CCFadmin

    By Joe Touschner As we noted just before Thanksgiving, HHS recently proposed regulations on essential health benefits (as well as cost-sharing and actuarial value).  A few new developments are noted below, but the most important aspect of the rule is its opportunity for comment.  Included with the rule is a proposed set of essential health…

  • New Development in the Stop-Loss Debate

    Guest

    By Christine Monahan, Center on Health Insurance Reforms There is a lot of talk around Washington, D.C. these days about whether or not more small employers will self-fund their employee’s health coverage with implementation of the Affordable Care Act – and, if they do, how this could impact the fully-insured small group market (including the…

  • Updated State-by-State Numbers Show that ACA’s Medicaid Extension is STILL a Good Deal for States

    CCFadmin

    By Martha Heberlein Earlier this week, the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured and the Urban Institute released updated estimates of the cost and coverage implications of the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid extension. These numbers are particularly helpful as states weigh whether or not to extend Medicaid to low-income adults. The big picture – if…

  • Supplemental Poverty Measure Shows 16% Are Living in Poverty

    CCFadmin

    By Tara Mancini This week, all around the country families will gather to celebrate Thanksgiving, a day known for eating turkey, but also for giving back to those in our communities who are in need. Over the last few years, a recession and weak economy have contributed to a rise in the percentage of people…

  • HHS Proposes Official Essential Health Benefit and Insurance Market Regulations

    CCFadmin

    By Joe Touschner While HHS outlined its approach for setting Essential Health Benefits in a Bulletin nearly a year ago, we’ve been waiting for federal regulations to make things official.  This week, those regulations were proposed.  The Department has posted info on the regs at these links: EHB Fact Sheet EHB Proposed Rule We’re still…

  • CMS Announces 2013 Plans for Connecting Kids to Coverage

    Tricia Brooks

    CMS has announced plans for continuing its efforts to engage states and stakeholders in its “Connecting Kids to Coverage” Campaign. The re-energized outreach and marketing campaign will include new toolkits, trainings/webinars, organizational and corporate partnership outreach support, earned media support and expertise in reaching key audiences. While efforts will be ongoing, the campaign will also…