Health Equity Connection for May 2012
In this Issue
- New Resources
- Policy Updates
- Small Business Report
- Latino Town Hall Recap
- National Asian American/Pacific Islander Heritage Month
- Upcoming Events
New Resources
Policy Updates
Administration Provides Federal Exchange Guidance
On Wednesday, May 16, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued guidance about its approach to implementing federally facilitated exchanges in states that do not set up their own exchange. This guidance also describes how HHS will consult with stakeholders to implement a federally facilitated exchange, how states can partner with HHS to implement selected functions in a federally facilitated exchange via a partnership exchange, and key policies for a federally facilitated exchange. Comments on this guidance are due on June 18, 2012, and should be sent to FFEcomments@cms.hhs.gov.
State Exchange Blueprint Released
Also on Wednesday, May 16, HHS released the draft blueprint for the approval of state-based and state partnership exchanges. States seeking to operate an exchange independently or in partnership with HHS must submit a blueprint to HHS by November 16, 2012, that describes how their plan meets the Affordable Care Act requirements. Comments on the draft blueprint are due on June 18, 2012 and instructions for commenting can be found here.
Small Business Report
This month, Families USA and Small Business Majority released Good Business Sense: The Small Business Health Care Tax Credit in the Affordable Care Act. The report presents national and state estimates on the number of small businesses that are eligible for the tax credit for tax year 2011 and how much the credits are worth. It also presents data on the number of employees who work for eligible small businesses and the average tax credit available per employee. We encourage you to use this report to demonstrate the impact that the health care law makes in your community. Check out the state-by-state data on the number of Hispanic and black employees who can benefit from the tax credit on pages 7 and 8.
Latino Town Hall Recap
On April 18, Families USA with National Council of La Raza (NCLR), Congreso de Latinos Unidos, and the Pennsylvania Health Access Network held a town hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, about how Latinos will benefit from the Affordable Care Act. The Surgeon General Regina Benjamin, Sinsi Hernández-Cancio (Families USA), Cynthia Figueroa (Congreso de Latinos Unidos), Jennifer Ng'andu (NCLR), Dr. Cheryl Bettigole (CompleteCare Health Network), and Dr. Gabriela D. Lemus (U.S. Department of Labor) all spoke to a full house of community members and grasstop leaders about what Latinos stand to gain. In addition to the great presentations and question-and-answer sessions, NCLR and Families USA developed a brochure in Spanish and in English about the benefits in the law for Latinos.
National Asian American/Pacific Islander Heritage Month
This May is National Asian American/Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Let’s celebrate by reflecting on the gains made under the Affordable Care Act, such as 2.7 million Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders enjoying no cost-sharing for their preventive services and 97,000 young adults getting to stay on their parents’ insurance plan! Check out this fact sheet for more about the historic accomplishments made so far and those still to come under the health care law.
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We’d like to hear from you!
Did we miss something? If you’d like to highlight an organization, event, activity, or other resource in our newsletter, please contact us at healthequity@familiesusa.org.
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