Marketplace
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More Kids Will Be Connected with Coverage Thanks to ACA
By Lincoln Nehring, Voices for Utah Children The Affordable Care Act reduces the number of eligible, but unenrolled kids in Medicaid and CHIP. Despite what you may have heard, this is a good thing. In a recent opinion piece in the Washington Times, Utah Governor Gary Herbert concedes that the ACA’s now-optional Medicaid expansion is…
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Premiums for Employer-Sponsored Coverage Increase Modestly, but Lower-Income Workers Pay More
By Martha Heberlein The annual Kaiser Family Foundation/Health Research and Educational Trust survey of employer health benefits was released today and found that the average premium for family based coverage rose to $15,745, or just 4% compared to 2011 (premiums for individual plans rose 3%). Although moderate, this growth has far out-paced workers wages, which…
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CCF and Children’s Dental Health Project Release New Pediatric Dental Benefits Brief
By Joe Touschner As Tara Mancini has observed, more and more of us in the health care world are coming to the stunning realization that the mouth is part of the body. To care for kids’ health properly, we need to give them quality, effective oral health services. The ACA recognizes this: it makes pediatric…
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State of the States: California and Colorado Identify EHB Benchmark
By Max Levin, Georgetown Center on Health Insurance Reform On Thursday, August 30, California passed legislation establishing the Kaiser Small Group HMO 30 plan as the state’s essential health benefits benchmark plan. Beyond identifying the state’s benchmark plan, the legislation appears to include a number of important consumer protections by, for example, prohibiting plans from…
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Pediatric Dental Benefits Under the ACA: Issues for State Advocates to Consider
By Joe Touschner The Georgetown University Center for Children and Families and the Children’s Dental Health Project collaborated to produce this issue brief. It presents an overview of some of the key changes the Affordable Care Act makes to children’s dental benefits and the choices states face in defining pediatric dental benefits. It concludes with recommendations for those who wish to support…
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Covering Parents: A Solution Child Advocates Can Get Behind
Before the Supreme Court decision on the Affordable Care Act, we released a paper highlighting the fact that 4.9 million parents stand to gain coverage through Medicaid in 2014. That research became even more significant after the Supreme Court ruling removed an important mechanism for the HHS Secretary to incentivize states to accept federal funds…
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Another ACA Double Win for States and Families: Aligning Medicaid Coverage for Children of All Ages
Imagine you’re a parent with a pre-schooler and a 9 year-old child, earn $20,000 a year (105% FPL) and live in Georgia. Your younger child qualifies for Medicaid coverage but has to renew coverage every six months. Your older child qualifies for CHIP coverage with a monthly premium of $10 but only has to renew…
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State of the States: Choosing an Essential Health Benefits Benchmark
By JoAnn Volk, Center on Health Insurance Reforms To help make coverage more comprehensive, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires insurers to cover a minimum set of health insurance benefits, known as “essential health benefits.” Consumers are already benefitting from this new protection: beginning in 2010, the ACA prohibits insurers from imposing lifetime or annual…
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Waiting for 2014: One Family’s Story
Editor’s Note: Our colleagues at the Georgetown University Center for Health Insurance Reform just launched a blog called “CHIRblog”. Thanks to the support of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, CHIRblog will feature profiles of everyday people across the country who will – or have already – benefited from new consumer protections under the Affordable Care…
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Oral Health: It’s time to put the mouth back in the body
By Tara Mancini Yes, it is time to put the mouth back in the body. This paraphrases comments of Dr. Greg Nycz, a panelist at Kaiser Family Foundation’s screening earlier this summer of the PBS FRONTLINE documentary “Dollars and Dentists.” The film takes a hard look at the nation’s flawed dental care system, highlighting the…
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New Guide to EHB from CCF
By Joe Touschner If your state is like a many others, you’ve likely been hearing or participating in active discussions around setting the essential health benefits for your state. (Check out this State Refor(u)m chart for a list of state activities and documents related to EHBs.). Every state, whether it will have a state-run or…
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Child Health Advocates’ Guide to Essential Health Benefits
By Joe Touschner This guide highlights considerations for the selection of the essential health benefits with a focus on services for children. The Department of Health and Human Services has determined that each state will select an essential health benefits package based on an existing employer-based health plan. The guide outlines the process for choosing and supplementing…
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Consumer Assistance in the Digital Age
This brief provides recommendations on how states can connect consumers with health coverage programs like Medicaid and health insurance exchanges. It also explores how ways to connect consumers with health coverage options will evolve as new technological tools are deployed to facilitate the enrollment process. Where states’ use of new technology tools is limited, the authors…
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Going for the Gold: Using All Tools Available to Help Consumers Connect to Coverage
Just as millions of people are crowding the streets of London for the 2012 summer games, millions of people are expected to access new coverage opportunities when Exchanges open for business next year. Preparing for the influx of people who will gain new coverage options requires the same kind of careful planning and preparation as…
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GAO to IRS: Consider the Family Penalty
By Joe Touschner Say Ahhh! readers have heard all about the family penalty—the proposed rule that spouses and children won’t be able to access premium tax credits if employer-sponsored single coverage is affordable for a worker—even if the cost of family coverage would be out of reach. (Note that some also refer to this problem…
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Governor Walker Misstates Impact of ACA and Its Effect on Medicaid
By Jon Peacock, Wisconsin Council on Children and Families In a recent Washington Post op-ed, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker attacked the federal health care reform law, but made one general point I concur with. He recommended looking at the practical impact of the Affordable Care Act in the states, and I wholeheartedly endorse that suggestion.…
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All Hands on Deck: Helping Consumers Navigate Coverage in 2013
In 2014, millions of Americans will gain access to more affordable health coverage when Exchanges officially open for business and states take advantage of the historic opportunity to provide coverage to more low-income people through Medicaid. Paving the way to these sources of coverage will be a transformation of the eligibility and enrollment process through…
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Countdown to 2014: Designing Navigator Programs to Meet the Needs of Consumers
Exchanges are required to establish a navigator program that provides grants to community or consumer-focused nonprofits and other organizations to conduct outreach and help consumers and small employers connect to health coverage. States have broad flexibility in designing their programs as long as minimum federal guidelines are met. While similar to existing models of consumer assistance in Medicaid and Medicare, navigator…
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Fresh Insights into Strategies and Messages for Enrollment in Medicaid and the Exchange
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation recently released new research to help states identify messages that will encourage enrollment in Medicaid in 2014 when minimum eligibility levels are expanded to 133% FPL. The research also explores issues relating to state Exchanges, including attitudes about enrolling and choosing health insurance online. It was conducted in three states:…
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It’s Decision Time for States – Do you Know Where Your Children Are?
By Catherine Hess, NASHP As the National Academy for State Health Policy’s (NASHP) recent webinars The Future of CHIP and Children’s Coverage and Keeping a Focus on Children in Health Care Reform conveyed, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) includes boosts for children’s coverage but raises myriad questions and issues. The country has achieved tremendous progress in reducing the uninsured…