Marketplace
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More Options for Eligibility Determination Potentially Crack the Seamless System
This week, CMS released a Q & A on State-Exchange Implementation with new information on several topics, which are described below. Of concern and worth highlighting is the disappointing departure from the proposed rules by now allowing states that choose not to implement a state-based exchange to retain control over Medicaid and CHIP eligibility. The Notice…
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A Compass for America’s Health Care Navigators
By Suzie Shupe, California Coverage & Health Initiatives The Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) health insurance exchange marketplaces offer the promise of connecting millions of uninsured Americans with the health coverage and care they need. And by strengthening Medicaid, millions more will be able to get care. It is an historic opportunity, but also an unprecedented…
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Health Insurance Premium Increases Outpace Wages
Employer-based health insurance costs have increased three times faster than wages since the beginning of the decade. About 62% of those under age 65 live in a state where average health insurance premiums exceed 20% of the median income. In 2010, the average total premium for a family of four was $13,871, an increase of…
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Fuzzy Math: Treasury Department says kids don’t count when determining whether family insurance is affordable?
By Kristen Golden Testa, The Children’s Partnership Since when is 14,000 no different than 5,000? When the U.S. Treasury Department estimates the affordability of a family’s health insurance. If it goes uncorrected, their fuzzy math may deny affordable health coverage to 270,000 Californians–122,000 of whom are children. While premiums continue to rise across the board,…
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Public Health Insurance as Poverty Reducer?
By Martha Heberlein I wanted to share an interesting tidbit that I couldn’t squeeze into my earlier blog on the supplemental poverty measure (SPM). As I mentioned, one of the new parameters included in the SPM is out-of-pocket spending on medical expenses. Well, if you look at those in poverty under the two definitions, it’s…
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Using Mobile Phones to Help Families Access Vital Medicaid Coverage
By Lisa Han, The Childrens Partnership Recent data shows that people of color and low-income populations are adopting mobile technology at a rapid pace and are increasingly using mobile tools to access the Internet. These tools enable new ways of interacting with the government and enrolling in public services. Instead of standing in line at…
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Expanding Access to Care for Young Adults Through the Right Outreach and Enrollment Strategies
By Brian Burrell, Young Invincibles The Affordable Care Act (ACA) marked a historic expansion of access to health care for many people, and the federal and state exchanges will be a large part of that reform. Ideally, low- and middle-income consumers will buy insurance with subsidies through online health benefit exchanges, where they can compare…
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Talking Enrollment in the Windy City
By Jenny Sullivan, Enroll America My colleague Ani and I had the pleasure of attending the Second National Children’s Health Insurance Summit earlier this month in Chicago. The gathering, hosted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), was the official kick-off for the second round of outreach and enrollment grants that CMS awarded to 39…
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Children’s Health is a National Priority
By Patrick McIntyre, United Way When it comes to the health of our nation, United Way cares about ensuring that everyone has health insurance, that folks eat well, and that Americans remain active and energized. Specifically for children, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program provide vital health care to children whose families don’t receive…
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Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Affordable Care Act Challenge
By Eva Marie Stahl, Community Catalyst The awaited day is here. The Supreme Court announced that it will hear the case against the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) individual responsibility requirement (and other related requests). For those immersed in football season, this is the Super Bowl of legal challenges. Game time. Be prepared, the oral arguments will…
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Implementing the Affordable Care Act for Millennials: What Can States Do?
By Maya Brod, Young Invincibles The Young Invincibles recently released a state guide with recommendations on how to best implement provisions of health care reform for young adults. The report, titled, “Implementing the Affordable Care Act for Young Invincibles: A State Guide for Health Care Reform for Millennials” identifies five major pieces of the ACA that disproportionately…
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NAIC Brings up Medical Loss Ratio Again
You know that expression, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me”? Well, it came to mind this past week at the National Association of Insurance Commissioner’s (NAIC) fall meeting in Washington, DC. Just as in March, during the NAIC’s spring meeting in Austin, the NAIC consumer representatives were lulled into…
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The State of Young America: Health Care and Coverage
By Maya Brod, Young Invincibles Long-term economic trends, such as diminished wages and disappearing jobs, combined with rising health care costs, make our generation of young adults the most uninsured age group in the country. But in spite of these bleak trends, changes to the insurance system brought by health care reform have begun to…
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A Chance to Raise Your Voice for Kids
By Joe Touschner We’ve posted in the past about the essential health benefits–the package of benefits that will be the basis for all health plans in the individual and small group markets and for some in Medicaid starting in 2014. Last month, the Institute of Medicine made recommendations to the Department of Health and Human…
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Can We Know the Unknown? How Medicaid Enrollment Could Vary Under Health Reform
By Martha Heberlein Back when the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was first being debated, there were two government estimates that predicted different numbers of new enrollees in Medicaid – one by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the other by the actuaries at CMS. Since then, a number of other studies have examined the impact…
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Comments on Proposed Medicaid, CHIP, and Exchange Eligibility Rules
CCF comments on the proposed rule that implements sections of the ACA related to Medicaid and CHIP eligibility, enrollment simplification, and coordination.(Federal Register, 76: 51148-5199). CCF comments on the proposed rule on eligibility determinations for Exchange participation and insurance affordability programs and standards for employer participation in SHOP. (Federal Register 76: 51202- 51237). CCF addendum…
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An Honest Look at State Budgets After ARRA Expires
By Tara Mancini Yesterday, three timely releases from the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured show that state budgets are beginning to turn around. The 11th annual 50-state survey of Medicaid budgets, coupled with an updated brief on state budgets in recession and recovery, and another on Medicaid provisions in ARRA (the stimulus bill)…
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How Would Michele Bachmann Replace Obamacare?
An uninsured mother with a son who relies on Medicaid for health care coverage asked Presidential Candidate Michele Bachmann the following question at a town hall meeting in Winterset, Iowa: “I want to hear more from you than your statement that on the day that you are elected you are going to end Obamacare, I…
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If Only There Were Cliff Notes on Proposed ACA Regs
As the October 31st deadline looms for groups that want to comment on the three proposed rules relating to the eligibility and enrollment of individuals into health coverage under the Affordable Care Act, many groups may wish “Cliff Notes” were available to help them sort through all the issues and the potential impact on children…
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National Groups Oppose CA Request to Circumvent Cost-Sharing Protections
Cost-sharing in the private insurance model was intended to encourage consumers to use services prudently, however, the application of increased cost-sharing for those enrolled in Medicaid often simply forces low-income individuals to go without medically necessary care. For that reason, federal legal protections were put in place to protect low-income people from being overburdened with…