New on the Web November 2012
From the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: “Are Low-Income Programs Enlarging the Nation’s Long-Term Fiscal Problem?,” “Medicaid Per Capita Cap Would Shift Costs to States and Place Low-Income Beneficiaries at Risk,” “Moving ‘Dual Eligibles’ into Mandatory Managed Care and Capping Their Federal Funding Would Risk Significant Harm to Poor Seniors and People with Disabilities”
From the Commonwealth Fund: “The Impact of Health Reform on the Medicare Advantage Program: Realigning Payment with Performance”
From the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families: “Uninsured Children 2009-2011: Charting the Nation’s Progress”
From Health Affairs: “The Vast Majority of Medicare Part D Beneficiaries Still Don’t Choose the Cheapest Plans that Meet Their Medication Needs”
From the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured: “Medicaid Today; Preparing for Tomorrow: A Look at State Medicaid Program Spending, Enrollment, and Policy Trends,” “State Demonstrations to Integrate Care and Align Financing for Dual Eligible Beneficiaries: A Review of the 26 Proposals Submitted to CMS”
From the Kaiser Family Foundation: “The Prevalence and Cost of Deductibles in Employer Sponsored Insurance: A View from the 2012 Employer Health Benefit Survey,” “Seniors’ Knowledge and Experience with Medicare’s Open Enrollment Period and Choosing a Plan,” “Quantifying the Effects of Health Insurance Rate Review”
From the National Academy for State Health Policy: “Supporting Healthy Child Development through Medical Homes: Strategies from ABCD III States”
From OMB Watch: “The Invisible Helping Hand of Government”
From the Urban Institute: “Federal Health Reform Is Largely Market-Based, Despite Contrary Assertions”
From the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities:
Are Low-Income Programs Enlarging the Nation’s Long-Term Fiscal Problem? explains that federal spending on low-income programs other than health care is actually projected to fall as a share of the economy. It includes a graph that shows how federal spending is divided among these programs. (November 2012)
Medicaid Per Capita Cap Would Shift Costs to States and Place Low-Income Beneficiaries at Risk explains that a per capita cap would force states to contribute substantially more of their own funds, cut benefits for the most vulnerable enrollees, or both. Seniors and people with disabilities, who account for almost two-thirds of Medicaid costs, would be hit hardest by a per capita cap. (October 2012)
Moving “Dual Eligibles” into Mandatory Managed Care and Capping Their Federal Funding Would Risk Significant Harm to Poor Seniors and People with Disabilities stresses the importance of carefully assessing managed care for dual eligibles in order to learn how best to coordinate care for this population and what roles Medicare and Medicaid should play. (October 2012)
From the Commonwealth Fund:
The Impact of Health Reform on the Medicare Advantage Program: Realigning Payment with Performance explains that the Affordable Care Act’s new payment system for private plans available through Medicare Advantage will reduce excessive payments to private plans and reward plans that receive high performance ratings. (October 2012)
From the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families:
Uninsured Children 2009-2011: Charting the Nation’s Progress finds that, nationally, children’s coverage continued to improve, but that half of all kids who are still uninsured live in the following six states: AR, CA, FL, GA, NY, and TX. It also includes data for the states with the highest and lowest rates of uninsured children. (October 2012)
From Health Affairs:
The Vast Majority of Medicare Part D Beneficiaries Still Don’t Choose the Cheapest Plans that Meet Their Medication Needs finds that Medicare enrollees tend to overprotect themselves with plans that include features they don’t need. Therefore, seniors need more targeted government assistance to choose the plan that is right for them. (October 2012)
From the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured:
Medicaid Today; Preparing for Tomorrow: A Look at State Medicaid Program Spending, Enrollment, and Policy Trends describes policy changes in reimbursement, eligibility, benefits, delivery systems, and long-term care. It includes extensive state-specific information and a more in-depth look at case studies of the Medicaid budget and policy decisions in MA, OH, OR, and TX. (October 2012)
State Demonstrations to Integrate Care and Align Financing for Dual Eligible Beneficiaries: A Review of the 26 Proposals Submitted to CMS examines the contents of the proposals in the areas of target population, implementation date, enrollment, financing, benefits, beneficiary protections, stakeholder engagement, and evaluation. It includes a chart summarizing the features of each proposal. (October 2012)
From the Kaiser Family Foundation:
The Prevalence and Cost of Deductibles in Employer Sponsored Insurance: A View from the 2012 Employer Health Benefit Survey presents a series of graphs that show the growth in deductibles over the past several years. The average deductible for individual coverage is now $1,097, up from $584 in 2006. (November 2012)
Seniors’ Knowledge and Experience with Medicare’s Open Enrollment Period and Choosing a Plan finds that nearly one-quarter of seniors are unaware of this annual opportunity to review and change their Medicare coverage. An even greater proportion of seniors with low incomes, limited educations, functional impairments, and poor health status do not know about open enrollment. (October 2012)
Quantifying the Effects of Health Insurance Rate Review compares the average rate changes that insurers requested to the rates that were ultimately implemented. It finds that, on average, approved rate increases were 1.4 percentage points lower than what insurers initially requested. It also includes an overview of the rate review information that is available for each state and links to view rate information online. (October 2012)
From the National Academy for State Health Policy:
Supporting Healthy Child Development through Medical Homes: Strategies from ABCD III States describes the experiences of AR, IL, MN, OK, and OR, which are part of the Assuring Better Child Health and Development (ABCD III) learning collaborative. It draws on these states’ experiences with care coordination to outline opportunities and lessons that state policy makers should consider in order to strengthen medical home initiatives in Medicaid. (November 2012)
From OMB Watch:
The Invisible Helping Hand of Government is a short video that explains how government investments support businesses and contribute to the success of our society, the strength of the economy, and our quality of life. (October 2012)
From the Urban Institute:
Federal Health Reform Is Largely Market-Based, Despite Contrary Assertions explains that the Affordable Care Act creates a more effective insurance market by encouraging consumers to seek the best value in health coverage and enabling them to do so with better information and more affordable options. (October 2012)
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