2:00 p.m.—We at Families USA have had a blast the past three days. Meeting all of you hard-working advocates has been inspiring and energizing for us. Relive Health Action 2015 by checking out our highlights blog and video of our plenary session on Medicaid and CHIP.
Thanks for being a part of our 20th annual gathering in Washington, D.C., hope to see you next year!
Today, Families USA issues a call to action in support of Health Reform 2.0 – a series of 19 specific proposals to improve health care for everyone in our nation. In the years ahead, we will build support for those proposals to hasten their adoption.
The timing for our proposals is challenging—many of you might reasonably wonder, at a point when the Affordable Care Act faces one of its most fundamental threats, is this the time to be thinking about the future of health care? Our answer is, “yes.”
5:30 p.m.—We just heard from two leading thinkers in health policy debate some of the most pressing issues related to access to affordable health care in America.
In a wide-ranging discussion that covered everything from Medicaid policy to children’s benefits on the exchanges to the ACA’s subsidies, these two feisty policy wonks hashed out their visions for the future while reflecting on the past year.
5:00 p.m. update—With three weeks until the end of open enrollment, one thing that distinguishes this period from last year’s is the lack of news. Things have been going pretty well.
Kevin Counihan of CMS noted that he’s grateful for the work of everyone at the conference: “This audience represents our salesforce.”
Counihan ran down the improvements CMS made to Healthcare.gov: reduced number of screens required to enroll from 76 down to 16, the site is warmer, fonts are bigger. “We’re learning.“
Now that open enrollment has ended, enrollment assisters are turning to the next phase of their work: 1) Helping consumers who did not get enrolled by March 31 figure out whether they can still sign up for health insurance, and 2) helping consumers who did sign up learn how to use and keep their health insurance. To help enrollment assisters answer new questions from consumers, we’ve created four new factsheets.
If the Supreme Court sides with the plaintiffs who brought the case, an estimated 6.4 million moderate-income people would lose premium tax credits. Without these subsidies, many people will simply be unable to afford to purchase health insurance.
Enrollment workers wear many hats, but one of the most important aspects of their job is helping consumers choose a plan that meets both their financial and health care needs. With all the different variables involved, it can be a daunting task. To help, our Enrollment Assister Network held a webinar to discuss how to help consumers understand and compare health plans.
We asked our policy experts to share their picks for 2014’s must-read—or, in some cases, must-see—articles, reports, videos, and more. See more “best of” lists from our teams working on health system transformation and marketplace health insurance.
For all of us working to ensure that consumers get enrolled and stay enrolled in affordable, accessible, quality health insurance plans, it’s often easy to get lost in the policy of it all. Here at Families USA, we strive to identify ways to translate the policies and procedures that are essential to the enrollment process into a language that makes sense to consumers.
The Affordable Care Act has made immense strides in expanding access to affordable health coverage. But some lower and moderate-income consumers may still struggle to afford coverage and care, even with the help of federal financial assistance. Nonprofits can alleviate some of the burden facing consumers.
Last week, we highlighted forward-thinking solutions some states have implemented to provide greater financial assistance to consumers, such as implementing the Basic Health Program.
