Marketplace
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NAIC Delays Vote on Removing Broker’s Commissions from MLR
There’s been lots of drama at this year’s first meeting of the NAIC (National Association of Insurance Commissioners) in Austin, TX – way more than any of us consumer representatives to the NAIC expected. The good news, as you may have heard by now, is that the NAIC decided to delay a vote to endorse…
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A Look Back: Why ACA Was Needed From A Young Person’s Perspective
By Aaron Smith, Co-Founder of Young Invincibles As we reach the one-year anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, it is important to remember why we fought so hard for this historic law in the first place. What was so necessary and urgent about health care reform that it compelled ordinary Americans to take up this grueling…
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On the Anniversary of the ACA: A Family Perspective on What It Means for Kids
By Jocelyn Guyer As communities across the nation celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, CCF marked the event in its traditional style – by issuing an issue brief. It has the facts about how the Affordable Care Act will affect children, but also stories from families whose children have personally been touched…
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For the Coverage of a Child – Coverage for Parents
By Martha Heberlein As we look ahead to full implementation of the Affordable Care Act, coverage for children has reached an all-time high, with 90% having secured coverage. Despite that good news, it still means 7.3 million remain without insurance and 65% of them are already eligible for Medicaid and CHIP but not yet enrolled. While there…
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Early Wins for Children on the One-Year Anniversary of Health Reform: Family Perspectives
March 23, 2011 marked the one-year anniversary of the signing of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). There have been early wins for children and their families, even though many of the major provisions do not go into effect until January 2014. This issue brief highlights families from across the country whose children have personally been…
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MACPAC Report Tops My “Must-Read” List
By Martha Heberlein MACPAC (the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission) issued its first mandated report to Congress on March 15th. For those who may get their acronyms muddled, MACPAC was established through CHIPRA and expanded and funded through the ACA. MACPAC (like its long-running sister commission, MedPAC, (which focuses on Medicare) provides technical assistance, policy…
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Waiving Hello to State Innovation?
By Joe Touschner In a continued push to show that states have flexibility under the Affordable Care Act, the Departments of Health and Human Services and the Treasury this week proposed rules for states to apply for innovation waivers under section 1332 of the ACA. Under current law, states could negotiate a waiver of ACA…
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Commonwealth Survey Underscores Need to Move Forward on ACA and Hold Steady on Medicaid & CHIP
A survey released today by the Commonwealth Fund underscores the need for states to hold steady in their commitment to health insurance programs such as Medicaid and CHIP while families struggle to find solid footing in the aftermath of the recession. It also provides solid evidence that 2014 and full implementation of the Affordable Care…
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Health Subcommittee Holds Hearing on Mandatory Spending in Affordable Care Act
You need to look no further than the uncertainty about FY 2011 funding being hobbled together through a series of short-term continuing resolutions and threats of a government shutdown to understand why mandatory funding is necessary to create a stable funding stream for essential programs that improve the health and well-being of America’s children and…
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New Tools for New Times: Using Cell Phones to Help Families Enroll and Stay Enrolled in Health Insurance
Mobile Technology: Smart Tools to Increase Participation in Health Coverage.
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ACA Can Build Upon CHIPRA Success by Improving Maternity Care
By Amanda Jezek, March of Dimes Health reform has the potential to provide tremendous opportunities to expand health insurance coverage, but what many people do not realize is that the new law also makes significant investments designed to improve the quality of health care — particularly in Medicaid. These provisions are critical in making sure…
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The Massachusetts and Utah Health Insurance Exchanges: Lessons Learned
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires states to set-up health insurance exchanges. Once up and running, exchanges are expected to connect approximately 29 million people to coverage. Their design should help individuals and small businesses shop for and purchase health insurance, access premium and cost-sharing subsidies, and facilitate health plan competition based…
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CMS Provides Guidance to States on ACA’s Stability Protection Provisions
By Jocelyn Guyer Today, CMS issued a letter and a frequently asked questions document that outlines how the Administration will work with states to implement the Affordable Care Act’s stability protections. As readers of Say Ahhh! know, a number of Republican Governors have been pressuring HHS to relax these stability protection or “maintenance of effort”…
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Tapping State Ingenuity to Streamline Access to Benefits
Today, families in need of child care assistance, health coverage and food assistance often have to apply to three different agencies, providing pretty much the same information and documents to each of them. All the while, different eligibility workers handle this information to determine the family’s eligibility separately for each program. Placing such redundant and…
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HHS Announces Insurance Rate Review Grants
The Department of Health and Human Services just announced $200 million in grants to states to enhance their capacity to review health insurance premium increases. This is good news for families struggling with health insurance premium increases year after year. As Michael Miller of Community Catalyst put it during the HHS conference call, “families’ incomes…
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Early Innovators Awarded HHS Health Exchange IT Grants
Drumroll, please! For us techies (or techie-wanna-bes), the waiting is over. And the envelope says…Kansas, Maryland, New York, Oklahoma*, Oregon, Wisconsin and a multi-state consortia consisting of the New England states (sans New Hampshire) are the winners. The awards ranged from a low of $6.3 million for Maryland to a high of $54.6 million for…
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Three Keys to Setting Up Strong Health Insurance Exchanges
By Joe Touschner Even as the media is focusing on the high-profile debate over court challenges to the Affordable Care Act and efforts to repeal and defund it in the House of Representatives, many states continue to move steadily forward with implementation. California was a leader in enacting legislation to create its exchange last year,…
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CHIPRA’s 2nd Birthday: Cake, Ice Cream & Outreach Grants
Ask anyone to share their childhood memories and inevitably, birthday parties will be among their favorite stories. So it’s fitting that we celebrate similar milestones when it comes to children’s health coverage as we are doing on this second anniversary of the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA). Cake and ice cream are yummy,…
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Super Blog-Off: Green Bay Faces Off Against Pittsburgh to Connect Kids to Coverage
So maybe I’m taking HHS Secretary Sebelius’ “Connecting Kids to Coverage Challenge” a little too far but if millions of Americans are going to drop everything to watch the Super Bowl, why can’t we channel some of that energy into something that will help uninsured children “Get Covered and Get in the Game”. Say Ahhh!…
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Florida Ruling on ACA Generates Some Surprise and a lot of Confusion
By Jane Perkins, National Health Law Project This past Monday, Florida district judge Roger Vinson issued his decision in one of the most closely watched cases challenging the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). At least 24 such cases have been filed in federal district courts around the country. The Florida case is different…