Marketplace
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Consumers Should Resist the Urge to Do Nothing and Renew Coverage through the Federal Marketplace
When enrollment reopens in the health insurance marketplaces in just a few days, the 7-8 million current enrollees will have an opportunity to make sure they get the right amount of financial assistance and are enrolled in a plan that best fits their needs for 2015. This new brief outlines the process for consumers in…
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Renewing Coverage Through the Federal Marketplace
This brief describes how consumers will update their eligibility for financial assistance and renew enrollment in a QHP through the federal marketplace. It’s a smart choice for consumers to update their information and compare QHPs, which includes new plan choices in many areas. However, most consumers can keep the level of premium tax credits and cost-sharing…
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We Can Reach the Finish Line on Health Coverage for Hispanic Kids
Ensuring that every child in America has the protection of health care coverage is an attainable goal. Today, in partnership with National Council of La Raza, we released a 50-state analysis of health coverage for Hispanic children. Our analysis found that Washington, DC is just a step away from the finish line already with 99…
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The Family Glitch Persists, Affordability Measure Increases to 9.56% in OE2
Everyone agrees it’s not fair to families and is an unintended consequence of how the Affordable Care Act is being implemented. But somehow our country’s leaders just cannot reach a consensus on fixing the family glitch. Families caught up in the glitch cannot qualify for premium tax credits to reduce the cost of a marketplace…
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Essential Health Benefits Across the States
By Joe Touschner Who remembers the essential health benefits? It was more than two years ago when JoAnn Volk filled us in on the plans states were choosing as their benchmarks to help set the minimum benefits in individual and small group market plans. More recently, Wakely Consulting offered a very helpful comparison of benefits…
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New Online Resource Provides Answers to Common Health Insurance and Marketplace Questions
Over the past year, experts from Georgetown University Center on Health Insurance Reforms and Center for Children and Families have been providing support to Navigators and assisters under a project funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Our work includes back-office support to assisters in 6 states – Georgia, Florida, Ohio, Arizona, Arkansas and Michigan…
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Raising the Curtain on Open Enrollment, Round Two
The second open enrollment period for the health insurance marketplaces, or OE2, is mere days away. As I wrote in this blog and the related Health Affairs story, OE2 will be part sequel and part new production. Taking a peek behind the curtain, what can the audience expect on open day, November 15th? Outreach and…
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Open Enrollment 2: Experts Answer Tough Questions and Offer Advice to Help Navigators and Consumer Assisters
This week, Georgetown University experts from the Center on Health Insurance Reforms and the Center for Children and Families released a report from their ongoing project to support Navigators and consumer assisters. The project, supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, provides Navigators and other in-person assisters in six states – Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan,…
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Kaiser Study: Employer Coverage Remains Steady, But Long Term Trends Highlight Need To Strengthen All Forms Of Coverage
By Sean Miskell Despite concerns that the Affordable Care Act’s reforms would undermine employer –sponsored health insurance, a recent study by the Kaiser Family Foundation finds that employer coverage remains steady and premiums have increased only modestly. While this is welcome news, long-term trends that show decreasing employer coverage – and increasing costs for those…
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School-Aged Children Benefit from ACA “Stairstep” Provision
One piece of the ACA that has received less attention than others (outside CCF at least!) is the requirement for states to align eligibility for all children under 19, also referred to as the elimination of “stairstep” eligibility for kids. A recent USA Today article focused new attention on this provision. Under the ACA states…
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States Putting In Place Delayed Medicaid Expansions Must Make Good Faith Effort to Ensure Nobody is Left Behind
Federal approval last month of Pennsylvania’s new plan to expand Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on January 1, 2015 has brought urgency to this obscure but important issue. States that decide to expand Medicaid where the date of expansion occurs after the original January 1, 2014 ACA Medicaid and health marketplace start…
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Advocates File Civil Rights Complaint with HHS on Coverage Termination Day
Yesterday, on the day that 115,000 people who bought coverage in the federal marketplace lost coverage, the National Immigration Law Center filed two formal administrative complaints with HHS’s Office for Civil Rights alleging that the federally facilitated violated longstanding federal civil rights law and the Affordable Care Act’s anti-discrimination provisions. They request that OCR immediately…
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Taking Stock and Taking Steps to Improve Consumer Assistance
A new report released by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Kaiser Family Foundation chronicles the challenges, innovations and lessons learned about the needs of consumers for assistance in accessing and using health coverage options under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The report is compilation of feedback from the field, including a survey of…
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Plan Cancellations Redux: Finally, An End to Pre-Existing Condition Discrimination?
The Navigator was scratching his head. The Affordable Care Act had banned insurance companies from discriminating against people with pre-existing conditions. How was it possible that his new client had a letter from his insurer, refusing to cover care for his HIV? The Navigator reached out to CHIR experts for answers, which we’re able to…
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Uninsured Children More Likely to Face Access and Affordability Barriers, Less Likely to Receive Preventive Care
Did you know that uninsured children are nearly 27 percentage points less likely than insured children to have received a routine checkup in the last year? That was one of the findings in a report CCF released with the Urban Institute earlier this month. Now most Say Ahhh! readers won’t find that statistic all that surprising…
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Overview of Immigrant Eligibility Policies for Health Insurance Affordability Programs
The Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families, in partnership with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and the National Immigration Law Center Presented in a Series of Assister Webinars Focusing on Coverage Eligibility and Application Process for Families that Include Immigrants sponsored by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Webinar 1: September…
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Uninsured Rate for Young Adults Declines
By Sophia Duong When the ACA was signed into law, I was still in college, sitting in the basement of the student union half working on a group project, and half following the news. My friends and I were ecstatic to be a part of this momentous time in history. As young adults on the…
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Early Evidence that ACA Improves Coverage of Hispanics
The CDC survey data released earlier this week provides hope that the ACA can improve coverage rates for Hispanics, a group with persistently high rates of uninsurance. In the first three months of 2014, the percentage of uninsured Hispanics decreased from 30.3% to 27.2%. This is particularly hopeful because we know that many more people…
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Health Insurance Rates Remain Steady Among Children, According to ACS
For background information regarding the 2013 American Community Survey, please review our blog Data Debrief: Overview of the ACS and CPS. On Thursday, the US Census Bureau released 2013 American Community Survey data. In accordance with the CPS, as well as recent federal and private surveys, children’s health insurance rates remained steady last year. According…
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What the CPS Says About Our Children’s Well-being
What the CPS Says About Our Children’s Well-being For background information regarding the 2013 Current Population Survey, please review our blog Data Debrief: Overview of the ACS and CPS. On Tuesday, the US Census Bureau published Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2013, which details the results of the Current Population Survey Annual Social…