Marketplace
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Major Implications for Children and Families of the Proposed Affordable Care Act Rules on Eligibility and Enrollment Systems
On August 17, 2011, the Obama Administration published three proposed rules in the Federal Register relating to the eligibility and enrollment of individuals into health coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Taken together, they offer a comprehensive blueprint of how the Administration is proposing to implement the provisions of the ACA aimed at ensuring…
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Waiver Watchers Alert: CMS decision protects AZ parents’ coverage; Budget cuts do not a waiver make
Another installment in the ongoing saga regarding Arizona’s efforts to rollback coverage for parents and childless adults occurred on October 7th when CMS sent the state a letter reviewing where things stand with the state’s Section 1115 waiver request. In January, Arizona became the first state in the nation to request a waiver of the…
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Farewell to Lisa – an Incredible Advocate and Colleague
Yesterday Jocelyn Guyer and I attended the funeral of one of our national colleagues, Lisa Codispoti, from the National Women’s Law Center. Lisa was an incredibly dedicated, smart and funny advocate who worked for many years at SEIU prior to joining NWLC’s staff – always fighting tirelessly for health coverage. As you will see from…
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IOM Report Starts Process of Defining Essential Health Benefits
By Joe Touschner The Affordable Care Act will bring health coverage within reach for millions of uninsured people. The law, though, doesn’t answer the question of exactly what that coverage will look like–that is, what benefits it will cover. The law charges the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to define an…
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Health Exchanges: Federal, State, or a Partnership?
(This blog originally appeared in the Health Policy Hub.) By Christine Barber, Community Catalyst Federal or state Exchange? The question of who should run the marketplace for individuals and small businesses to shop for and buy affordable, high quality insurance has been an ongoing debate in health reform circles for a number of years. And a main…
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How Has Arizona’s CHIP Enrollment Freeze Impacted Kids?
The state of Arizona was hit especially hard by the recession and responded by imposing the largest spending cuts in the state’s history. Among these was a freeze in KidsCare, the state’s Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Arizona remains the only state with an enrollment freeze in place and a new report we just released…
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Exchange I Reg Deadline Extended to October 31
Have you been frantically putting the finishing touches on your comments to the Exchange I regulations to meet tomorrow’s deadline? Or did you decide to forego submitting comments due to the quick turnaround time initially established by CMS? Either way, we have good news for you – your deadline has just been extended to October 31! To…
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Kaiser Survey Finds Health Insurance Premiums Continue to Increase
As has happened every year in recent memory, annual premiums for employer-sponsored family health care coverage increased according to the annual Kaiser Family Foundation’s 2011 Employer Health Benefits Survey released today. This year, annual premiums hit an average of $15,073 – an increase of 9 percent over last year. On average, workers pay $4,129 and…
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Let’s Make “SHOP” Work Well for Small Businesses and Families
By Dinah Wiley, CCF Consultant Small business owners and entrepreneurs will have better access to affordable health care plans for themselves and their employees once the Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) provision of the Affordable Care Act is up and running. This is a great innovation for small businesses as they can pool with…
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High Uninsurance Rate Impacts Access & Quality of Care in Community
We all intuitively know communities are better off when residents have access to health care coverage and a new report sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation provides us with even more data to back up that point. The report found that a high rate of uninsurance in a community has a spillover effect for…
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President Obama Unveils Deficit Reduction Plan
Yesterday, President Obama unveiled “Living Within Our Means and Investing in the Future”, a detailed plan that includes $3 trillion in net deficit reduction over ten years. In general, the President’s plan is a balanced and fair approach to deficit reduction. In releasing the package, he sent a stern warning to Congress that he would…
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Let’s Make the Exchanges More Welcoming to All Children and Families
By Dinah Wiley, CCF Consultant Earlier this year, Pulitzer-prize winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas revealed that he is an “undocumented immigrant”. His mother had sent him from the Philippines to the U.S. at age 12 because she wanted him to have a better life. He was fortunate to have American grandparents and a support network, or…
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Common Sense Standards Would Help Exchanges Be Consumer Friendly
By Joe Touschner The Affordable Insurance Exchanges, as envisioned by the Affordable Care Act, have great potential to help children and families secure quality health coverage that is competitively priced and supported by federal tax credits for those who qualify. As Say Ahhh! readers know, states will operate exchanges under guidelines set by the federal…
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Rising Health Care Costs, Rising Underinsurance
By Martha Heberlein Two studies just out in the September issue of Health Affairs highlight the troubles many face in affording health care coverage. The first study by researchers at the Commonwealth Fund found that over the past 7 years the number of people who had coverage year-round, but were considered “underinsured” rose by 80%. (The authors…
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Momentum Builds as Diverse Group of States Receive Exchange Establishment Grants
By Joe Touschner In addition to the package of proposed rules it released on August 12, HHS also announced the award of more than $185 million in grants to help states develop their exchanges. The federal funds will support state efforts to strengthen information technology systems, analyze insurance markets, develop consumer assistance capacity, and design…
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New Transparency Rules Will Help Consumers Compare Health Insurance Plans
We got some good news last week from the Administration – new rules for individual and group health plans that require them to disclose critical information about their benefits and out-of-pocket costs. For many of us, this is sort of “ho-hum” news because our employer pretty much makes the decisions about what health plan to…
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ACA Propels States to Adopt Best Practices in Simplification and Alignment
and Jennifer Mezey, National Women’s Law Center Simplification and alignment of policies for children in Medicaid and CHIP have helped states fill the gap in private insurance and achieve record levels of coverage for 90% of our nation’s children. These lessons are carried forward in the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) expansion of coverage through Medicaid…
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Affordable Care Act Preventive Services are Good News for Women and Children
By Jennifer Mezey, National Women’s Law Center In a significant victory for women and girls, the US Department of Health and Human Services announced this week that all new insurance plans would be required to cover a wide range of preventive services aimed at women’s health – without cost sharing — starting in the first…
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Proposed Rules Fast-track State Efforts in Streamlining and Coordinating Coverage for Children and Families under the ACA
Successful state strategies in streamlining eligibility and coordinating enrollment in Medicaid and CHIP are the heart and soul of the latest round of proposed regulations issued for the Affordable Care Act (ACA). While we’re still wading through the three sets of proposed rules released today by CMS, it’s clear that these regulations take a number…
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CMS Offers a Sweeter Deal in Trading Up Integrated Eligibility Systems
Even if you tend to gloss over my technology blogs, please keep reading because this is really BIG news for the states. Yesterday, CMS announced that, for a limited time, it is waiving the requirement that the cost to replace or improve integrated eligibility systems be allocated across programs (at each program’s matching rate). Let’s…