Research & Reports
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Implementing the Affordable Care Act for Millennials: What Can States Do?
By Maya Brod, Young Invincibles The Young Invincibles recently released a state guide with recommendations on how to best implement provisions of health care reform for young adults. The report, titled, “Implementing the Affordable Care Act for Young Invincibles: A State Guide for Health Care Reform for Millennials” identifies five major pieces of the ACA that disproportionately…
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NAIC Brings up Medical Loss Ratio Again
You know that expression, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me”? Well, it came to mind this past week at the National Association of Insurance Commissioner’s (NAIC) fall meeting in Washington, DC. Just as in March, during the NAIC’s spring meeting in Austin, the NAIC consumer representatives were lulled into…
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The State of Young America: Health Care and Coverage
By Maya Brod, Young Invincibles Long-term economic trends, such as diminished wages and disappearing jobs, combined with rising health care costs, make our generation of young adults the most uninsured age group in the country. But in spite of these bleak trends, changes to the insurance system brought by health care reform have begun to…
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Foster Kids Rely on Medicaid
By Laura Boyd, Foster Family-based Treatment Association What is treatment or therapeutic foster care? Many in the child welfare ranks do not know; many are confused and unsure about TFC. Treatment or Therapeutic Foster Care (TFC) is specialized foster care consisting of intensive behavioral health services delivered usually in foster homes by licensed mental health…
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Childhood is an Extreme Sport – Get Kids Covered
I just returned from the Children’s Health Insurance Summit in Chicago where organizations that successfully applied for CHIPRA outreach and enrollment grants gathered to share ideas on how to better Connect Kids to Coverage. I’ll have more to say about the summit in a future blog but I first have to fulfill my promise to…
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A Chance to Raise Your Voice for Kids
By Joe Touschner We’ve posted in the past about the essential health benefits–the package of benefits that will be the basis for all health plans in the individual and small group markets and for some in Medicaid starting in 2014. Last month, the Institute of Medicine made recommendations to the Department of Health and Human…
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Can We Know the Unknown? How Medicaid Enrollment Could Vary Under Health Reform
By Martha Heberlein Back when the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was first being debated, there were two government estimates that predicted different numbers of new enrollees in Medicaid – one by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the other by the actuaries at CMS. Since then, a number of other studies have examined the impact…
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SC Medicaid Director Seeks to Remove Roadblocks to Medicaid Enrollment
Sue Berkowitz, South Carolina Appleseed Legal Justice Center While South Carolina is often a state cited for being first on list for outcomes that are bad and last in those that are good, we have some surprisingly positive news. The South Carolina Medicaid director Tony Keck, in his 2012-13 budget request to Gov. Haley, asked…
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Comments on Proposed Medicaid, CHIP, and Exchange Eligibility Rules
CCF comments on the proposed rule that implements sections of the ACA related to Medicaid and CHIP eligibility, enrollment simplification, and coordination.(Federal Register, 76: 51148-5199). CCF comments on the proposed rule on eligibility determinations for Exchange participation and insurance affordability programs and standards for employer participation in SHOP. (Federal Register 76: 51202- 51237). CCF addendum…
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An Honest Look at State Budgets After ARRA Expires
By Tara Mancini Yesterday, three timely releases from the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured show that state budgets are beginning to turn around. The 11th annual 50-state survey of Medicaid budgets, coupled with an updated brief on state budgets in recession and recovery, and another on Medicaid provisions in ARRA (the stimulus bill)…
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How Would Michele Bachmann Replace Obamacare?
An uninsured mother with a son who relies on Medicaid for health care coverage asked Presidential Candidate Michele Bachmann the following question at a town hall meeting in Winterset, Iowa: “I want to hear more from you than your statement that on the day that you are elected you are going to end Obamacare, I…
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Major Implications for Children and Families of the Proposed Affordable Care Act Rules on Eligibility and Enrollment Systems
On August 17, 2011, the Obama Administration published three proposed rules in the Federal Register relating to the eligibility and enrollment of individuals into health coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Taken together, they offer a comprehensive blueprint of how the Administration is proposing to implement the provisions of the ACA aimed at ensuring…
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Divide & Conquer: NC Speaker of House Tries to Pit Medicaid Beneficiaries Against One Another
By Adam Searing, North Carolina Justice Center Usually the North Carolina Speaker of the House, Thom Tillis, presents himself as a moderate, business-friendly Republican. Even as his party has enacted the largest cuts in the history of NC’s Medicaid program, he’s managed to keep the focus at local meetings around the state where he has…
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Health Exchanges: Federal, State, or a Partnership?
(This blog originally appeared in the Health Policy Hub.) By Christine Barber, Community Catalyst Federal or state Exchange? The question of who should run the marketplace for individuals and small businesses to shop for and buy affordable, high quality insurance has been an ongoing debate in health reform circles for a number of years. And a main…
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Together, Let’s #PutKids1st
By: O. Marion Burton, MD, FAAP, President, American Academy of Pediatrics The Budget Control Act of 2011 (Public Law 112-25), passed by Congress in August to raise the national $14.3 debt ceiling through 2012, called for the establishment of a 12-member, bipartisan Congressional Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (JSC) to address the country’s long-term…
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Kaiser Survey Finds Health Insurance Premiums Continue to Increase
As has happened every year in recent memory, annual premiums for employer-sponsored family health care coverage increased according to the annual Kaiser Family Foundation’s 2011 Employer Health Benefits Survey released today. This year, annual premiums hit an average of $15,073 – an increase of 9 percent over last year. On average, workers pay $4,129 and…
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Let’s Make “SHOP” Work Well for Small Businesses and Families
By Dinah Wiley, CCF Consultant Small business owners and entrepreneurs will have better access to affordable health care plans for themselves and their employees once the Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) provision of the Affordable Care Act is up and running. This is a great innovation for small businesses as they can pool with…
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Hard Work Pays Off for “Waiver Watchers”
By Wesley Prater A number of states looking to save money in their Medicaid programs are asking the federal government for Section 1115 Research and Demonstration waivers — in some cases asking for federal protection that preserve their coverage for children and families to be loosened. However, recently three states – New Jersey, Texas, and…
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We Owe our Children More than a Fiscally Sound Nation
By Bruce Lesley, First Focus As the 12 members of the Congressional Super Committee begin their work, it’s important to remember that in this country, we don’t kick people when they’re down, particularly children. Millions of American children face the daily possibility that they won’t have enough food to eat or the supplies needed for…
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High Uninsurance Rate Impacts Access & Quality of Care in Community
We all intuitively know communities are better off when residents have access to health care coverage and a new report sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation provides us with even more data to back up that point. The report found that a high rate of uninsurance in a community has a spillover effect for…