| The latest news from and for state health care advocates |
November 2012
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In each edition, we'll feature an action, victory, campaign, or interesting tactic shared by a state advocate. Send us your updates. |
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In This Issue:
Buzz around the States
Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families developed an innovative tool kit on the Medicaid expansion. It includes county-level factsheets, as well as infographics, memes, and a video that can be shared on social media.
A new survey in Maryland shows that there is strong support for the Affordable Care Act, but that there are also knowledge gaps among those who will benefit the most from the law. Maryland Health Care for All, which worked with the Horizon Foundation and Lake Research Partners to produce the survey, plans on using the results to help inform their enrollment and outreach efforts in 2013.
Health Action New Mexico partnered with several school districts to send informational flyers about the Affordable Care Act home with students in order to educate parents about the new benefits available for their families, such as free regular checkups, obesity screenings, and free immunizations. (Pre-K-5th grade; 6th-8th grade)
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States in Focus
Utah Navigator Legislation Needs Work and Input from Community Groups
Thanks to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), signing up for health insurance is about to get a whole lot easier. The new insurance exchanges for individuals and small businesses will give consumers options and cost-savings they never had before. Helping consumers take advantage of these options will be “navigators”—trained professionals who can explain insurance options, encourage participation and outreach, and assist with the enrollment process.
But before these benefits of the ACA kick in, policy makers will have to decide who plays that role of navigator, what qualifications they will have to meet, and what kind of training they should have (learn what the ACA expects at a minimum here). Consideration of those questions took up the first half of the November 1st meeting of the state’s Health System Reform Task Force Insurance Market Work Group.
The jumping off point for the Work Group’s discussion was draft legislation, which you can review here. The draft assigns most of the responsibility for licensing, training, and regulating navigators to the Utah Insurance Department. UHPP and other community advocates believe the draft bill is putting the cart before the horse and urged the Work Group’s legislative members to focus on designing the navigator program before creating regulations for navigators. Read our feedback on the draft legislation here.
In addition, we believe navigator policy and standards should be developed in consultation with community-based nonprofit organizations who are best suited to be navigators. These organizations—and not traditional insurance brokers—already understand the cultural, language, and socioeconomic barriers that navigators will need to cross in order to reach hundreds of thousands of uninsured Utahans. To this end, we proposed forming an ongoing community advisory panel and formal collaboration with other government departments to guide the Utah Insurance Department in its oversight of navigators.
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Written by Jennifer Carter, Director of Public Policy and Health Care
Access, Nebraska Appleseed
Originally posted on Nebraska Appleseed’s blog on October 9, 2012
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Center for Rural Affairs Report Says New Program under the Affordable Care Act Is Critical for Rural Nebraskans
The Center For Rural Affairs released a new report Monday that examines the effect a new Medicaid program would have on Nebraska’s rural communities. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) gives states the opportunity to provide coverage to low-income residents under age 65 through a new Medicaid program with significant federal assistance.
The report, New Medicaid Initiative in Nebraska: The Rural Implications, concludes rural Nebraskans desperately need the increased access to healthcare and economic boost to rural economies that would come with the Affordable Care Act’s new Medicaid initiative. The report also outlines the differences between the three reports currently available on the possible Medicaid expansion in Nebraska, and makes clear that the recent report from the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s Center for Health Policy, and the report from the Urban Institute, are more accurate and more carefully considered than the report from Milliman.
Some of the report’s highlights include:
- The Medicaid program would allow between 45,000 and 54,000 adults in rural Nebraska to afford health insurance.
- The average Nebraska family would see their health insurance costs drop by more than $600 every year by eliminating the “hidden tax” of uncompensated care that insurance companies pass on to customers.
- Medicaid would stabilize the rural health care system. Rural doctors receive 20 percent of all patient revenue from Medicaid, and Medicaid and Medicare account for 60 percent of all cash flow in rural hospitals. An expanded Medicaid increases the number of insured patients these doctors and hospitals will be able to serve.
- The program would finance between 10,000 and 13,000 jobs per year in rural Nebraska.
Jon Bailey, the Rural Research Director at the Center for Rural Affairs and the report’s author, said the Medicaid program is the right morally and financially responsible choice and will impact rural Nebraskans even more than those that live in the state’s larger cities.
“It will create jobs and economic activity in the state, while also benefitting Nebraskans who work hard and play by the rules,” Bailey said in a statement. “The new Medicaid initiative will help make people healthier, will reduce the number of health care-related bankruptcies, and make Nebraska a better place to live and raise families.
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Who Would Be Eligible for Medicaid If Expanded? Might Be You.
With the re-election of President Obama and the Democrats with even more numbers in the U.S. Senate, all the indications are that the U.S. House will end its two-year effort to “repeal and replace” or simply stop ObamaCare.
Much of the upcoming battles now will be in the states over whether to expand Medicaid to their citizens with incomes under 138% of the federal poverty level.
For the public to actually understand who would benefit if states expanded Medicaid as allowed under ObamaCare, first they need to know that states already cover the very, very, very poor under Medicaid. In most instances, these are hopelessly unemployed parents.
But when we talk about expanding the eligibility for Medicaid to 138% of poverty, we’re now talking about the working poor, with kids or not, who simply can’t afford health insurance.
The U.S. Department of Labor looked at 2011 employment data for all different kinds of jobs. Here is a list of those jobs that have 50% of their workers with annual incomes below 138% of the poverty level for a family of three. See if you fall into one of these groups. You might be surprised who will benefit if your state expands Medicaid under ObamaCare.
Food Preparation and Serving Related Workers
Ushers, Lobby Attendants, and Ticket Takers
Counter Attendants, Cafeteria, Food Concession, and Coffee Shop
Combined Food Preparation and Serving Workers, Including Fast Food
Dishwashers
Legislators
Cooks, Fast Food
For a complete list, click here.
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Beat of the Month
We've had some major victories in our work to implement the health care law, but there are still many obstacles to overcome. This month's beat is Florence and the Machine's "Shake It Out" to help remind us to shake it off when it comes to those who don't want us to succeed, and to keep pushing forward because it's always darkest before the dawn!
Don't Let Congress Cut Health Care!
Congressional leaders and the White House are working together to develop a deficit reduction plan by the end of the year—that’s just a month away! With such a short window, we have to act fast.
Encourage your networks to tell congressional officials from your state to take a balanced approach that protects middle- and lower-income families. You can take action here.
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New Resources from Families USA and Stand Up for Health Care
Take me to back issues of the Beat!
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