New on the Web 56 (May 2009)
From the Alliance for Health Reform: “Health Insurance Exchanges: See How They Run”
From the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: “Designing Benefit Standards for a Health Insurance Exchange,” “Ensuring Affordable Health Coverage and Health Care Services in an Insurance Exchange”
From the Commonwealth Fund: “The Continuing Cost of Privatization: Extra Payments to Medicare Advantage Plans Jump to $11.4 Billion in 2009,” “Meeting Enrollees’ Needs: How Do Medicare and Employer Coverage Stack Up?”, “Women at Risk: Why Many Women Are Forgoing Needed Health Care”
From the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured: “Medicaid as a Platform for Broader Health Reform: Supporting High-Need and Low-Income Populations,” “Where Does the Burden Lie?: Medicaid and Medicare Spending for Dual Eligible Beneficiaries”
From the Kaiser Family Foundation: “Health Insurance Coverage for Older Adults: Implications of a Medicare Buy-In”
From the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: “Coverage When It Counts: What Does Health Insurance in Massachusetts Cover and How Can Consumers Know?”
From the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Urban Institute: “Health Reform: Cost of Failure”
From the Urban Institute: “Express Lane Eligibility and Beyond: How Automated Enrollment Can Help Eligible Children Receive Medicaid and CHIP”
From the Alliance for Health Reform:
Health Insurance Exchanges: See How They Run is a webcast that looks at insurance exchanges and examines the following questions: What is meant by a health insurance exchange, and how might it work? Who would be allowed to seek coverage through the exchange? What rules would govern the conduct of plans offering coverage? What’s in it for the consumer? (May 2009)
From the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities:
Designing Benefit Standards for a Health Insurance Exchange explains that, in any exchange that is created as part of health reform, it is crucial to establish benefit standards so that all plans cover a comprehensive range of services, thereby ensuring that individuals and small businesses have a choice of affordable, comprehensive plans. These benefit standards would protect people with particular medical conditions from facing excessive costs, and they would better enable consumers to compare plans based on price and quality. (May 2009)
Ensuring Affordable Health Coverage and Health Care Services in an Insurance Exchange finds that any health reform proposal that requires everyone to obtain health insurance must establish mechanisms to make health coverage and health care affordable. It also identifies four key components that any successful exchange should have: minimum standards for benefit packages, limits on the degree of variation in different benefit packages, limits on the number of different plan choices, and a requirement that insurers in the exchange offer the full range of benefit packages. (May 2009)
From the Commonwealth Fund:
The Continuing Cost of Privatization: Extra Payments to Medicare Advantage Plans Jump to $11.4 Billion in 2009 concludes that payments to MA plans in 2009 are projected to be 13 percent greater than the corresponding costs in traditional Medicare—an average of $1,138 per MA plan enrollee. If these beneficiaries were enrolled in traditional Medicare instead, more than $150 billion could be saved over 10 years, which could be used to finance improved benefits for the low-income elderly and disabled or for expanding health coverage. (May 2009)
Meeting Enrollees’ Needs: How Do Medicare and Employer Coverage Stack Up? finds that elderly Medicare beneficiaries reported greater overall satisfaction with their health coverage, better access to care, and fewer problems paying medical bills than those under age 65 who are covered by job-based plans. This study was designed to examine whether a public plan could potentially improve access to necessary services and reduce the burden of medical bills for individuals under age 65. (May 2009)
Women at Risk: Why Many Women Are Forgoing Needed Health Care examines how rising health care costs coupled with eroding health benefits are having a substantial effect on Americans' ability to get health care, particularly women. In 2007, 52 percent of women reported having problems obtaining needed care due to cost, and 45 percent had accrued medical debt or reported having problems with medical bills. (May 2009)
From the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured:
Medicaid as a Platform for Broader Health Reform: Supporting High-Need and Low-Income Populations summarizes the problems that low-income individuals face in today's health care system and explores policy options for expanding Medicaid to cover more of this population as a base for broader health reform efforts. The report finds that Medicaid can provide a strong foundation that can help ensure the success of broader reform efforts by maintaining coverage for the poor and sick while providing a vehicle to reach low-income adults. (May 2009)
Where Does the Burden Lie?: Medicaid and Medicare Spending for Dual Eligible Beneficiaries fills in gaps in information about dual eligibles by analyzing their demographic and health characteristics, as well as their patterns of service utilization and spending under both Medicare and Medicaid. These seniors are generally low-income, in poor health, and have considerable health care needs, making them one of the most costly populations to be covered by public insurance. (April 2009)
From the Kaiser Family Foundation:
Health Insurance Coverage for Older Adults: Implications of a Medicare Buy-In examines the barriers to securing affordable coverage in the current marketplace for uninsured people ages 55-65, as well as how a Medicare buy-in program could improve health coverage for this group. (May 2009)
From the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation:
Coverage When It Counts: What Does Health Insurance in Massachusetts Cover and How Can Consumers Know? details the complex challenges consumers face when making choices about which health insurance plan to purchase. The authors use Massachusetts as an example to suggest a new method for evaluating health insurance plans and make recommendations for states that are working to increase transparency in health insurance pricing. (May 2009)
From the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Urban Institute:
Health Reform: Cost of Failure examines three different scenarios that could occur if the U.S. does not reform its health care system. It concludes that in the best case scenario, inaction could increase family and individual spending by at least 46 percent and nearly double government expenditures as more U.S. residents become eligible for programs such as Medicaid and CHIP. (May 2009)
From the Urban Institute:
Express Lane Eligibility and Beyond: How Automated Enrollment Can Help Eligible Children Receive Medicaid and CHIP explores how automated enrollment strategies have achieved remarkable results, dramatically increasing program participation while lowering administrative costs and reducing erroneous eligibility determinations. The paper also addresses operational details about implementing some of the strategies described in this report. (April 2009)
Return to New on the Web Contents
