Marketplace
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Navigating the Application Process for Families that Include Immigrants
Immigrant resources from a webinar for assisters, February 21, 2014, sponsored by HHS in partnership with CCF, the National Immigration Law Center, and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities:
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Florida is Leaving 764,000 Uncovered and Giving Up $7 Million Per Day
Editor’s Note: To listen to the webinar hosted by the Florida Philanthropic Network on this topic, visit this site. I just returned from a briefing in Tallahassee sponsored by the Florida Philanthropic Network on Medicaid where I released a new factsheet. I presented some key findings – noted below – and a terrific panel…
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It Takes Time to Reduce Emergency Room Use
By Tara Mancini Last month, another round of results were released by the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment (OHIE). The examination found that emergency department (ED) use increased by 40 percent among those who were enrolled in Medicaid compared to the control group. The results raised an important and obvious question: what would ED usage look…
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Overlap Between Medicaid MCO’s, Marketplace Plans Could Smooth a Rough Edge of Health Reform
Margaret A. Murray and Jennifer Babcock, Association for Community Affiliated Plans In late January, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) made public figures showing that more than three million people had enrolled in health plans offering coverage through Health Insurance Marketplaces in the last three months of 2013. Many have selected a Qualified…
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Google Maps Can Help Advocates Target Outreach Efforts
By Tara Mancini Knowing where the uninsured children are is the first step toward connecting them with coverage. In our November brief on children’s health insurance coverage, we named the 20 counties with the highest number of uninsured children. I’ve uploaded all of the 1-year and 5-year American Community Survey (ACS) data into Google maps so that you can…
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School-Based Health Centers Provide Important Access Points for Children’s Health Care
By Lorraine Gonzalez-Camastra, Children’s Defense Fund – NY As our nation moves to have more Americans gain access to health care by acquiring health insurance coverage through the Affordable Care Act (ACA), many states are looking to figure out how to meet the capacity of treating those who are newly insured. Ensuring steady access points…
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Arkansas ‘Private Option’ Model Doesn’t Make Sense for Pennsylvania
As readers of SayAhhh! know, Governor Corbett of Pennsylvania is currently revising a Section 1115 Medicaid waiver proposal to extend Medicaid coverage to the newly eligible low-income adults in his state. That would be great news if it weren’t such a problematic proposal (as I have blogged about before). The state took public comments on…
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How Do Updated 2014 Federal Poverty Level Thresholds Impact Medicaid, CHIP & Premium Tax Credit Eligibility?
By Martha Heberlein Updated 2014 federal poverty thresholds were released on January 22nd and inquiring minds have been asking what they mean in terms of determining eligibility for Medicaid, CHIP, and premium tax credits. And the answer, as with so many things in our world is, “well, it depends.” Let’s start with premium tax credits…
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SNAP! And 153,000 California Children Can Get No-Cost Health Insurance Without an Application
By Kristen Golden Testa, The Children’s Partnership Imagine your infant has a high fever and you want to bring her to the doctor but don’t have health insurance. Or your young child can’t concentrate at school due to a tooth ache and you can’t afford to go to the dentist without coverage. Now imagine, one…
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Rep. Waxman’s Legacy Includes Significant Improvements in Children’s Health Coverage
Like many of you, I will truly miss Representative Henry Waxman when he retires from Congress at the end of this term. I admire his work ethic, deep concern for others and tireless efforts to stand up for those who need his help the most. Most of all, I admire his ability to get things…
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New CBO Numbers: Cause for Controversy or Celebration?
Unsurprisingly, the latest report from the Congressional Budget Office sparked attacks and counter-attacks from both sides of the polarized debate over the Affordable Care Act. Opponents argued that the new estimates on employment support their charge that the ACA is a “job killer,” while supporters responded that the CBO said no such thing. In the…
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Find a Baseline and Set Standards for Hospital Presumptive Eligibility From There
As we approach the Winter Olympics, I was thinking about how the world’s elite athletes achieve such high standards of performance. It’s a rarity that such athletes emerge from the unknown at the top of their fields. It takes training, coaching, assessing, testing new techniques, making adjustments and, over time with lots of practice, top…
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Here’s the Latest on Mandate Exemptions
By Joe Touschner Now that 2014 is here, the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate is in effect to encourage individuals and families to maintain health coverage. This year, though, will be a transition year for many when they won’t face any penalty for reasonable gaps in coverage. We’ve learned more about how the individual mandate…
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CBPP Finds New Plan to Repeal ACA Would Lead to Deep Cuts for Medicaid Beneficiaries, Higher Costs and Fewer Consumer Protections
By Edwin Park, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), and Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) unveiled a new plan to repeal all of health reform (the Affordable Care Act or ACA) except for certain provisions related to Medicare, cap federal Medicaid funding, and create a new tax credit for people…
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How the Three “R’s” Contributed to the Success of Medicare Part D
Senator Marco Rubio has introduced a bill to repeal the risk corridors that offer protections for both insurers and consumers who participate in the new insurance Marketplaces, while referring to these corridors as a bailout for the insurance industry. Ironically, one of the models for these risk corridors is the Medicare Part D drug benefit that was enacted when Republicans…
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Federal Court Ruling: Navigator Laws Cannot Impose Additional Requirements on Navigators and Other Assisters in Federal Marketplace States
A federal district court ruling yesterday regarding Missouri’s navigator law has the health coverage community abuzz. As I noted in this Say Ahhh! blog, a number of states have proposed or passed legislation to require additional training and licensing for navigators, and sometimes other assisters, and restrict the activities they are required to perform by…
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The ACA in 2014: Helping Consumers Transition to New Coverage
January 1st was the first day of coverage for those who enrolled in health plans through a health insurance marketplace. All eyes were watching to see how successful the transition from enrollment to the use of new coverage would be. The good news? Unlike the first few days of the Medicare Part D program, the first…
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Unreasonable Standards Will Likely Discourage Hospitals from Doing Presumptive Eligibility
I’ve written several Say Ahhh! blogs on the Affordable Care Act’s new hospital presumptive eligibility provisions. The ACA explicitly gives hospitals the prerogative to make Medicaid presumptive eligibility (PE) decisions, regardless of whether the state has previously implemented the policy option. In particular, presumptive eligibility provides a great opportunity for hospitals to connect uninsured kids…
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New Report Looks at Factors Leading to Medical Debt Among People with Insurance
Today, the Kaiser Family Foundation—in collaboration with Kevin Lucia and Katie Keith of CHIR—released a new report exploring factors leading to medical debt among people with insurance. The report identifies common causes and consequences of medical debt, and discusses the triggers of medical debt that will and won’t be affected by the Affordable Care Act. It finds that health…
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2014 is Finally Here! Let the Coverage Begin …
I was excited to come to work today – the first business day of full implementation of the Affordable Care Act. It has been many decades in the making – but the concept that all Americans should have access to affordable health insurance is finally the law of the land. And anti-consumer practices, used by…