Marketplace
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CDC Survey Finds Uninsured Rate Drops for Adults, Remains Steady for Kids
In the rapidly changing health coverage landscape, getting an accurate snapshot of what’s happening to uninsured rates is a bit like trying to get a good photo of your new puppy sitting and smiling for the camera. Today, we got one of the most rigorous and timely snapshots that we can possibly get from a…
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Medicaid Matters For Children: Alabama’s Investment in Extending the Medicaid Payment Increase
By Dr. Marsha Raulerson, Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics Across the country, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) provide health coverage to more than 43 million children, including half of all low-income children in the United States. This summer, I cared for one of those children. In August, a 17 year old…
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We Can Fix This, People! More than Half of Uninsured Parents Are Hispanic
New data zeroes in on a subgroup of uninsured adults not always studied: uninsured parents. An Urban Institute report released yesterday found that more than half (57 percent) of uninsured parents surveyed in March/June 2014 were Hispanic and more than one-third (38.4 percent) said their primary language was Spanish. While I know this does not…
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A First Look at How the Affordable Care Act is Affecting Coverage among Parents and Children
Editor’s Note: This blog originally appeared on the Health Affairs blog. By Joan Alker, Georgetown CCF and Genevieve M. Kenney, Urban Institute Following the implementation of the major coverage provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2014, the question arises: “How is the health law affecting uninsured children and their families?” Today, the Urban…
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A First Look at Uninsured Rate for Children Since Major Affordable Care Act Provisions Took Effect
Georgetown University CCF researchers teamed up with researchers at the Urban Institute to take a first look at how the Affordable Care Act is impacting the uninsured rate for children. The high level data indicate that, so far, there has been no detectable change nationally, although children’s uninsured rates remained at historically low levels. The…
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Looking Under the ACA Hood to Check on How Uninsured Children are Doing
Recently, CCF teamed up with the researchers at the Urban Institute to take a first look at how the Affordable Care Act is impacting the rate of uninsured children. The high level data indicates that, so far, there has been no detectable change nationally, although children’s uninsured rates remains at historically low levels. But state…
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Do Nothing to Renew or Get an Updated Eligibility Determination? CMS Puts out Final Marketplace Renewal Rules
CMS has adopted the proposed rules for QHP renewal and redetermination of premium tax credits published with very few changes. As I wrote in this blog, the good news is that the final rules provide an opportunity for consumers to be automatically re-enrolled in the same or a similar plan without taking action. The downside…
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Spread the Word: Deadline One Week Away for Immigrant Communities Needing to Verify Marketplace Eligibility
Immigrant communities face a critical deadline on Friday, September 5: submit additional documentation to verify their citizenship or immigration status, or potentially lose health coverage through the marketplace at the end of September. Yesterday we helped sponsor a press briefing primarily for ethnic media to help spread the word and educate immigrant communities about the…
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How Does Coverage Gap Impact Parents and Kids in States Turning Down Medicaid Expansion Funds?
We know that thanks to Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, America’s children are – overall – benefiting from historically high rates of health coverage (over 90% of U.S. children are now covered) even through some states still lag behind. However, low-income parents of dependent children around the country are not so fortunate if…
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Open 24/7, Medicaid and CHIP Enrollment Gains Top 7.2 Million
The June Medicaid and CHIP Enrollment Report, released last week by CMS, shows that 7.2 million more people are now covered by Medicaid and CHIP than before the beginning of open enrollment last October. It’s not surprising that states expanding Medicaid have seen an 18.5 percent increase in Medicaid and CHIP enrollment, while those opting…
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Navigator Resource Guide Helps Answer Consumers’ Questions about Health Insurance & Coverage
We at CHIR and CCF continue to field questions from Navigators and assisters as part of our Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded project to provide technical assistance and resources to assisters of all stripes. Though Open Enrollment is a distant memory and folks are gearing up for round 2 later this year, consumers continue to turn…
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Congress and States Work to Extend ACA’s Medicaid Primary Care Bump
By Sophia Duong A hot topic recently has been the extension of the Medicaid payment rate increases for primary care services. The ACA required states to reimburse primary care physicians who treat Medicaid beneficiaries at the higher Medicare rate for 2013 and 2014. The rate bump has garnered large support from physicians and hospitals, and…
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“Peace of Mind”: professional dancers, the ACA, and affordable coverage
Professional dancers push their bodies for years to meet the physical demands of their work, which makes access to health insurance a high priority for these performing artists. A recent Kaiser Health News article examined the issue of health insurance affordability and access through the lens of a ballet dancer, highlighting the peace of mind…
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The Tax Rules that Health Care Assisters Need to Know
By January Angeles, Center of Budget and Policy Priorities “Navigators” and others helping people apply for health coverage need to understand basic tax filing rules because eligibility for Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and premium tax credits for coverage bought through federal and state Marketplaces is based on Internal Revenue Code definitions of…
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Advocates Urge HHS to Improve Enrollment for Immigrant Families
Today, CCF joined more than 140 national and state organizations asking Secretary of Health and Human Services Burwell to work expeditiously to remove barriers that make it difficult for eligible immigrant and mixed status families to obtain health coverage. The letter focuses on 5 serious barriers that need to be resolved so that eligible individuals…
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All Enrollees Should Contact the Marketplace at Renewal
In recent guidance, CMS revealed its plan for the first round of financial eligibility redeterminations and marketplace plan renewals for the millions of people who enrolled in a qualified health plan (QHP) through Healthcare.Gov. A companion notice of proposed rulemaking would provide both the federal and state-based marketplaces additional flexibility as their systems evolve and mature.…
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Grace Periods for Failing to Pay Insurance Premiums: What Consumers Need to Know
On July 16, the Obama Administration issued guidance for insurers in the federally facilitated marketplaces (FFMs), clarifying a requirement to provide policyholders receiving premium subsidies with a grace period of up to 90 days if they fail to pay their premiums. How does the grace period work? Under federal rules, insurance companies participating on the FFMs can drop policyholders…
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ACA Days of Summer
By Sandy Ahn, Center on Health Insurance Reforms Ahhh, summer. Baseball. Watermelon. Court decisions on Obamacare. Summer seems to be the season for head scratching court decisions about one of the most politically divisive laws in the last decade, if not the 21st century. It was only two summers ago that the Supreme Court opinion in NFIB v.…
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Seven Steps to Improve Enrollment for the Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Community
By Naomi Stark, Georgetown CCF Research Assistant The Affordable Care Act provided an enormous opportunity for coverage of many immigrant and mixed status families eligible for premium tax credits in the health insurance marketplace. However, due to a variety of enrollment barriers, many of those eligible for these critical benefits are unable to enroll. Action for…
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New Report Finds Consumers are Receiving Improved Protections in Individual Market
By the Center on Health Insurance Reforms Staff The Affordable Care Act includes numerous consumer protections designed to remedy shortcomings in the availability, affordability, adequacy, and transparency of individual market insurance. However, because states continue to be the primary regulators of health insurance and implementers of these requirements, consumers are likely to experience some of…