Research & Reports
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MomsRising Receives Overwhelming Response to Invitation to Share Thoughts on ACA
In honor of the six-month anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, our friends at MomsRising invited moms, dads, grandparents, bloggers, community leaders, government officials, policy experts and others to share their thoughts and feelings about health reform. They received an overwhelming response to their invitation. Here are a few of the many interesting blog entries: Kerri Marrone…
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ACA September 23rd Reforms Will Make Insurance Work Better for Children and Families
Today marks the six-month anniversary of the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). It is also the date that some of the new law’s insurance reforms go into effect to help make insurance work better for families and children. Those improvements include: Prohibiting most insurers from limiting benefits or denying coverage…
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Choosing Your Own Doctor – New Protections for Children and Adults
By Joe Touschner Finding the right health care professional to provide primary care can be a challenge–we’re all looking for the right balance of expertise, compassion, communication skills, and availability. So no one likes it when an insurance company steps in to limit our choice when it comes to picking an available primary care provider. …
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Kaiser Video Explains Affordable Care Act
Six months after the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was signed into law, most people still don’t know what’s in it, according to a recent Associated Press Poll. For those of you feeling frustrated by the fact that the public still doesn’t seem to understand the new law despite your best efforts, take heart in…
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September 23 Health Care Reforms: Making Insurance Work for Children and Families
September 23rd marks the six-month anniversary of the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). It also ushers in a new set of insurance reforms that will enable more children and families to obtain and keep their health care coverage. This brief describes the changes as well as a number of strategies…
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Rising to the Connecting Kids to Coverage Challenge
By Cathy Kaufman, Oregon Healthy Kids It was a proud day for Oregon last month when our Healthy Kids Program was hailed as a national model by U.S. Health & Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Secretary Sebelius paid a visit to Cleveland High School in Portland to help launch a new Healthy Kids Sports Campaign,…
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Census Paints Bleak Portrait of Poverty & Lack of Insurance
The portrait revealed by the data released today by the U.S. Census Bureau was bleak, underscoring the extraordinary toll the nation’s economic downturn took on families in 2009. A record number of people are now living in poverty and the nation’s uninsurance rate is at the highest level since the Census started tracking it in…
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Big Stakes for Health Reform in Tomorrow’s Senate Vote
By Edwin Parks, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities The Senate will vote tomorrow on an amendment to small business legislation that would seriously weaken an essential element of the new health reform law — the requirement that individuals obtain health insurance or pay a penalty — and eliminate preventive care funding aimed at reducing…
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RIte Care and Rhode Island’s Family Resource Counselor Program Highlighted as National Models
By Elizabeth Burke Bryant, Rhode Island KIDS COUNT Rhode Island was proud to be one of three states highlighted in a video at Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’ Connecting Kids to Coverage Challenge event on September 3, 2010. Rhode Island’s successful RIte Care health insurance program and our Family Resource Counselor program were both featured as models…
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Many Patient’s Bill of Rights Provisions Go Into Effect on September 23rd
September 23rd will mark the six-month milestone for the Affordable Care Act and several provisions impacting children and families will go into effect on that date including provisions in the “Patient’s Bill of Rights” which: Prohibit employer or new individual health plans from excluding coverage of specific benefits associated with a pre-existing condition for any…
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CK2C Event Inspires Action in States
By Ann Bacharach, Pennsylvania Law Project and National Covering Kids and Families Network I took a break from my stay-cation this week to get motivated for the fall. On behalf of the National Covering Kids and Families Network, I took the early morning train from Philadelphia to Washington on Friday to attend the re-launch of…
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Since You’ve Been Gone …
Having spent much of the summer in South America and without much access to American media, I was curious to see how things had changed when I returned to work this week. Hmmm. Not so good. Controversy over the health reform bill seems as rhetoric laden and inflammatory as ever as the election approaches. That…
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California is Blazing a Trail on Establishing Health Insurance Exchange Under ACA
By Mike Odeh (Children Now) and Kristen Golden Testa (The Children’s Partnership) with the 100% Campaign And we’re off! Implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is officially underway! Less than six months after Congress passed the ACA, California has blazed the trail as the first state in the nation to create a statewide Health Insurance…
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Health Insurance Exchanges: New Coverage Options for Children and Families
A key feature of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) is state-based “exchanges.” These new health insurance marketplaces are designed to provide uninsured (and in some cases underinsured) individuals and small businesses with the ability to purchase affordable health insurance coverage for themselves and their employees respectively. States that establish and operate exchanges…
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Group of State Medicaid Directors Creates New Association
By Jocelyn Guyer After two weeks in New Hampshire and Maine and a few extra cups of coffee to get moving, I returned from vacation yesterday to find this very interesting development in my inbox – the nation’s Medicaid directors are breaking away from the American Public Human Services Association to start their own independent…
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CMS Releases Guidance on the Extension of Enhanced FMAP Funding
By Martha Heberlein On August 10th, President Obama signed an extension of the state fiscal relief first authorized under ARRA. Under the extension, states will continue to receive a phased-out increase in their federal Medicaid matching rate through June of 2011, as opposed to it expiring at the end of this year. CMS released guidance…
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Three Cheers for Dependent Coverage Expansion!
By Patrick Tigue, New England Alliance for Children’s Health While there are many provisions in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that will benefit children and families, the expansion of dependent coverage to children up to age 26 is among the most important – especially in the short-term. In 2011 alone, as many as 1.64 million…
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Location Matters
By Martha Heberlein I know I’ve said it dozens of times – states are different. Like people themselves, they have their own characteristics, quirks, and personalities that make them unique. But what about within states – are there differences of note? Why, of course (I’m sure we can all think of a long list of…
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Getting Kids Covered and in the Game
Last week, Cindy Mann blogged about the importance of kids’ coverage on healthcare.gov. “As back-to-school time approaches, families are thinking about making sure their children have every opportunity to learn. Now is also the time to make sure that kids have the coverage they need to be healthy – the first step to a successful…
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Extension of Medicaid Relief Clears Last Hurdle in Congress
By Joe Touschner We’ve been following for some time the inconsistent progress of legislation that would extend increased federal Medicaid payments to states. While versions of the legislation have previously passed both houses of Congress, the two chambers had not succeeded in making the extension law by agreeing to the same bill. Today, they have,…