Marketplace
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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…
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A Closer Look at the Florida Ruling
(This blog originally appeared on the Health Policy Hub) By Eva Marie Stahl, Community Catalyst Vinson toasts anti-ACA supporters with tea Alas, the Judge Roger Vinson (Florida v. HHS) ruling is here. The Florida-led case remains the media darling of the handful of cases challenging health reform that are rolling through the Federal courts in…
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Legal Challenges to ACA – Long Road Ahead
As you’ve probably seen in the news media, there will be a long road ahead in getting a final answer to the legal challenges to the Affordable Care Act. The Obama administration will appeal the ruling (and possibly also request a stay of the ruling) by a Florida judge. U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson in Pensacola…
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With the Right Mix, Children’s Coverage Doesn’t Have to Take a Back Seat
By Julie Silas (Children’s Defense Fund-California) and Mike Odeh (Children Now), with the 100% Campaign While health insurers are pulling child-only plans out of the individual insurance market in a majority of states, California stands as a model in realizing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and envisioning a reformed coverage system where the injustice against children is finally…
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CHIPRA Provides More Funds to Help States Pay for Language Services
By Mara Youdelman, National Health Law Program As immigrant communities expand across the United States, many healthcare providers and patients have encountered communication barriers making it difficult for patients to receive proper care. Yet proper communication is as important to healthcare as a stethoscope. You can’t listen to someone’s heart without a stethoscope. How can…
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HHS Announces Funding Opportunity to Help States Build Exchanges
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has announced that states can now apply for grants to “establish” their Health Insurance Exchanges under the Affordable Care Act. These grants follow the Exchange “planning” grants awarded last September to 49 states, including DC, and will provide states with ongoing resources to move beyond planning and begin…
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IOM Works to Define Process for Essential Health Benefits
By Joe Touschner Even as the House of Representatives takes time to re-debate the Affordable Care Act, many organizations are hard at work implementing the new law. Last week, an Institute of Medicine panel held a two day meeting to help develop recommendations on essential health benefits that will form the basis for state-based exchange…
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Holding Steady, Looking Ahead: Annual Findings of a 50-State Survey of Eligibility Rules, Enrollment and Renewal Procedures, and Cost Sharing Practices in Medicaid and CHIP, 2010-2011
Over the past year, as the nation’s attention was focused on the country’s economic problems and the debate over the passage of broader health care reform, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) continued to play their vital role of providing coverage to millions of people who otherwise lack affordable coverage options. In 2010,…
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Flags Flown at Half-Staff – ACA Repeal Vote Delayed
Our hearts go out to all the victims of Saturday’s tragedy in Tucson and we wish the injured a quick recovery. President Barack Obama ordered all U.S. flags lowered and asked all Americans to observe a moment of silence at 11 a.m. today. Flags should remain at half-staff through sunset on Friday, Jan. 14, 2011.…
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Healthcare.gov Posts State-by-State Cost of Health Reform Repeal
As the politics of the health reform repeal effort heat up, healthcare.gov has posted some interesting statistics on the cost of repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Instead of using emotionally-charged and inaccurate adjectives such as “job-killing”, the website provides facts about the number of people that would be adversely affected by the repeal of…
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New England Advocates Share Successful Strategies for Growing Children’s Coverage
By Eugene Lewit, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation A new report by the New England Alliance for Children Health (NEACH) tells an impressive advocacy success story. More importantly, it draws practical ideas from the advocates who made it happen, serving as a guide to advocacy strategies that work. As most regular Say Ahhh! readers…
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Insurers Revisit Decision to Abandon Child-Only Policies in California
By Jocelyn Guyer At CCF, things are starting to get very quiet as the Holiday Break approaches and I hadn’t planned on doing any more blogs this week, but this story from the Los Angeles Times is well worth highlighting. As a result of the fantastic work of California advocates and their allies in state government,…
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Comments Sought on CMS Proposal to Pay 90% Match on Medicaid Eligibility Systems
By Jocelyn Guyer As I was having a “chat” with my husband earlier this week about who was supposed to have come up with a dinner plan, I started thinking about the similarities between married life and health care reform implementation. (Well, to be honest, this wasn’t my very first thought when I came home…