2013
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Getting into Gear for 2014: Shifting New Medicaid Eligibility and Enrollment Policies into Drive
On January 1, 2014, many key provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will start to go into effect, including the expansion of Medicaid to low-income adults and the launch of new Medicaid eligibility and enrollment processes, which are designed to move toward a coordinated enrollment system across health coverage programs, including Medicaid, CHIP, and…
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Children’s Coverage on the Eve of the Affordable Care Act
Huffington Post November 19, 2013 By Joan Alker, Here’s a good news story on health coverage that the public is largely unaware of. The number of uninsured children continues to decline to historic lows – a remarkable accomplishment given the high childhood poverty rate and tough economic times. Yet a majority of Americans are unaware…
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WV Kids Helped By Their Parents Getting Health-Care Coverage
Public News Service November 14, 2013 By Dan Heyman, CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Almost all West Virginia children have health care coverage, but many of their parents don’t, especially in working families. The good news is that if the parents can get insurance, it could actually help the health of the children. Renate Poer, director of…
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My Take on the HHS Enrollment Numbers
As we like to say here inside the Beltway, its all about your baseline… So I am actually somewhat pleasantly surprised by the numbers HHS just released. I had very low expectations like everyone else. What seems encouraging to me is the level of interest – between the state and federal marketplace websites there have…
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CHIP’S Start: Early Lessons for Health Reform
By Matt Broaddus, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities The Administration is expected to issue estimates this week of enrollment since October 1 in health reform’s Medicaid expansion and its new health insurance marketplaces — and some media have already reported that the numbers did not meet Administration expectations. But, as we’ve learned by examining the early experience with…
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More Details on Michigan’s Medicaid Expansion Emerge
Late last week Michigan filed a waiver amendment with CMS that provides more detail on what they are planning in their Medicaid expansion, which they call “Healthy Michigan.” The waiver amendment is a huge step forward in covering low-income adults, so here’s the good news and a few elements we plan to keep our eye…
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Beware of Rush to Judgment Based on Early Enrollment Numbers
As we await the first set of marketplace enrollment numbers from HHS, we need to maintain perspective. The Medicare Part D experience tells us that enrolling for a new health benefit is not something you expect to do quickly. As of the equivalent first month report in the fall of 2005, 10 percent of those…
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Small Business and the ACA: Survey Debunks Opponents Claims
Small employers are often portrayed in the media as down on the Affordable Care Act, anxious that it will raise their costs and expose them to greater regulation. And opponents of the law like to claim that it will “kill jobs” and cause people to lose the coverage they have. Of course, providing health insurance…
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Medicaid Enrollment is Up – as Expected
By Edwin Park, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Media reports have expressed surprise, even concern, that early enrollment in Medicaid under health reform has outpaced enrollment in the new health insurance marketplaces so far. But, that was expected to happen, even before the well-documented technical problems affecting HealthCare.gov, the federal marketplace website. The fact is, the…
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Helping Consumers Understand Their Coverage Options from Coast to Coast
By Sarah Dash, Kevin Lucia, and Justin Giovannelli of the Center on Health Insurance Reforms To help consumers enroll in the recently opened health insurance marketplaces, the Affordable Care Act created outreach and consumer assistance positions such as “navigators,” in-person assisters, and certified application counselors. Although awareness of the marketplaces and the financial help they may offer has…
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And Another Thing (or two) On Inaccurate Reporting About Medicaid and the ACA …
Perhaps the most egregious error I have seen in recent reporting on Medicaid enrollment and this ACA is from a recent report in CBS News. A CBS News analysis shows that in many of the 15 state-based health insurance exchanges more people are enrolling in Medicaid rather than buying private health insurance. And if that…
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Reality Check: Interest in New Coverage Options and Support for Medicaid Expansion Strong
Amidst all the noise, a new Commonwealth Fund survey provides a helpful reality check that focuses our attention back where it should be: on actual uninsured Americans and how they are approaching the new coverage options available to them. This information is super-current and comes directly from a survey of Americans and not from state…
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147,000 children across Pa. found to lack health insurance
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette November 4, 2013 By Kate Giammarise HARRISBURG — More than 147,000 children in Pennsylvania lack health insurance, according to a recent study, despite the commonwealth’s goal of ensuring coverage for all kids. Between private insurance, Medicaid for kids from low-income families and the Children’s Health Insurance Program — which covers children whose families…
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If Reducing the Uninsured Rate is the Goal, Why All the Fuss About Medicaid Enrollment?
Huffington Post November 3, 2013 By Joan Alker, I was going to write this blog earlier in the week but got waylaid by meetings, meetings and more meetings! Today I wake up and see a front-page story in the Washington Post:Medicaid Tops Private Plans in Tallies of New Sign-Ups. It’s not very often that you…
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Strong Medicaid Enrollment So Far No Surprise to Me
I was going to write this blog earlier in the week but got waylaid by meetings, meetings and more meetings! Today I wake up and see a front-page story in the Washington Post: Medicaid Tops Private Plans in Tallies of New Sign-Ups. It’s not very often that you see a front page story on Medicaid…
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New Guidance on Individual Mandate: New Hardship Exemption for Those Who Enroll at the End of the Initial Enrollment Period
By Tara Mancini While open enrollment for Marketplace plans extends to March 31, 2014, there’s been some concern that an earlier date—February 15—marked the deadline for those without coverage to sign up to avoid tax penalties for going without insurance. On Monday, CMS released additional guidance on the ACA’s individual shared responsibility requirement to address…
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Under Pressure: An Update on Restrictive State Insurance Marketplace Consumer Assistance Laws
By Justin Giovanelli, Georgetown University’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms To help consumers enroll in the recently opened health insurance marketplaces, the Affordable Care Act created outreach and consumer assistance positions such as “navigators,” in-person assisters, and certified application counselors. Though they are subject to uniform federal standards, in practice, these programs range widely from…
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The Administration’s New Welcome Mat for Immigrants: “It’s Safe to Apply”
By Dinah Wiley In previous blogs, I’ve described the reluctance of immigrant families to enroll in Medicaid, CHIP, or marketplace insurance and subsidies. The chief worry for a mixed-status household is whether a health insurance application will trigger immigration enforcement, resulting in “removal” (deportation) of a member of the family who would be separated from…
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What CHIP Implementation Can Teach Us
By Gene Lewit The “glitches”, “problems”, “failures” of the federal health insurance marketplace and the HealthCare.gov website are headline news and a source of frustration, disappointment and embarrassment to many. Yet, research that I have been doing for First Focus based on experience with the roll out of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) beginning…
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Policy Cancellations – Another Tempest in a Teapot?
By Sabrina Corlette and Kevin Lucia, Georgetown University Center on Health Insurance Reforms There’s been a lot of breathless journalism lately – with each day’s events apparently a referendum on the success – or failure – of the Affordable Care Act. One of the latest story lines involves people with individual health insurance policies receiving policy…