Marketplace
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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…
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Florida v. Sebelius – View from Pensacola
By Anne Swerlick, Florida Legal Services Last week I had a front row seat in Judge Vinson’s Pensacola federal courtroom where arguments were heard on cross motions for summary judgment in Florida v. Sebelius. In contrast to the rather modest number of spectators in the courtroom, there was literally an army of lawyers from all…
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Texas Secedes! And Other Takeaways from the Final NAIC Votes on ACA Implementation Issues
Yesterday the NAIC Executive Committee and Plenary had their final call for the year. They had a long agenda, including passing a Model State law to create an insurance Exchange and Model Laws to implement ACA’s early insurance reforms (such as elimination of pre-existing condition exclusions for children, dependent coverage up to age 26, and restrictions on…
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Can’t Wait to See What It’s Like to Get Health Insurance Through an Exchange?
Waiting for 2014 is a bit like being a child excitedly anticipating Christmas or Hanukkah. It just can’t get here quickly enough. Thinking about the concept of “no wrong door” and streamlined, paperless enrollment in Medicaid and CHIP certainly leaves me with visions of sugarplums dancing in my head. As we approach the holidays, our…
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Rate Review: States Can Help Make Health Insurance More Affordable
Thirty-nine percent increase in California. Fifty-six percent increase in Michigan. Forty-seven percent increase in Connecticut. Twenty-one percent increase in New Mexico. In recent years consumers have faced unprecedented hikes in their health insurance premiums. In many cases, these hikes are driven by the increasing costs of medical care. But what happens when an insurance company…
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Opportunity Now to Engage on Establishing a State Exchange
By Liz Arjun Last week I was at a meeting where we were joined by Joel Ario, the HHS official who is overseeing implementation of the new Health Insurance Exchanges, the vehicle that is expected to provide coverage for close to 30 million Americans in 2014. We had a chance to ask him questions and…
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VA Judge Rules Against ACA Individual Responsibility Provision
Today, U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson became the first federal judge to find a provision of the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional. If you’re keeping a scorecard, it is now 2 to 1 in favor of the ACA. Two other federal judges have upheld the law. This certainly won’t be the last scrimmage before the…
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Congress Acts to Change ACA Subsidy Structure
By Joe Touschner We’re less than a year beyond the passage of the Affordable Care Act and still three full years from the implementation of state exchanges and their federal premium subsidies. But already Congress has decided to make some significant changes to how the premium tax credits would work and, in the process, could…
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New Transparency Standards Set for Mini-Meds
Yesterday, CCF’s guest blogger Aaron Smith of Young Invincibles wrote about some of the problems with so-called “mini-meds” or limited benefit plans. These are products that can’t even be called “insurance” because they provide so little protection to patients – some of them have limits on what they’ll cover as low as $2000 per year. Unfortunately, for millions…