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.
As stewards in educating, equipping, and empowering members of their communities, faith leaders have the unique opportunity to educate their congregants about the new health insurance options available through the marketplace. Because they value health, justice, and equity, faith leaders can be critical sources of information about the Affordable Care Act, which could have a far-reaching impact on millions of Americans—many of whom sit in pews on a weekly basis.
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.“
A new report released last week confirms the findings that enrollment experts emphasized on our teleconference with reporters last Wednesday: We still have a ways to go in getting “hard-to-reach” populations enrolled in health coverage.
With five weeks left before the close of the second open enrollment period in the health insurance marketplace on February 15, enrollment experts have been working hard to make the final push to spur consumer sign-up. We held two teleconferences in January with state experts who shared updates on their plans. Listen to them here.
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.
Yesterday, despite overwhelming opposition from consumers and a variety of other stakeholders, the Trump Administration finalized proposed changes to the individual health insurance market for 2018 that will increase costs for consumers, reduce financial assistance to help consumers afford coverage, and make it harder for people to enroll in coverage through the marketplaces.
In its first regulatory act, the Trump Administration has laid the groundwork to ensure that “TrumpCare” will cost consumers drastically more, if they are able to sign up for health insurance at all. This tips the balance in favor of insurers at the expense of consumer protections.
In addition to typical partners such as community groups, this open enrollment some assister and navigator organizations are coordinating with health insurance companies to improve their outreach to consumers. These partnerships offer many advantages, such as plan benefit information and health literacy resources. However, as this blog explains, assisters should develop partnerships while following existing regulations and ethical guidelines.
