WHAT’S NEXT FOR THE ACA?
With Tuesday’s election results, many are wondering what it means for the Affordable Care Act and Open Enrollment Year 4 (OE4). First of all, open enrollment for 2017 in the marketplace continues just the same. Insurance companies are committed to the marketplace for 2017 and premium rates are set. Also, many potential changes to the ACA may not be able to take effect until 2018. For an in-depth analysis of what a Trump administration means for the ACA, check out the blog post from Health Affairs entitled “Day One and Beyond: What Trump’s Election Means for the ACA.” That blog post is available here.
CMS has put out new resources for OE4 designed to help you with your enrollment outreach efforts. These include pamphlets on why young adults need health coverage, what questions to ask when choosing a health plan and one on the health insurance marketplace. All three of these pamphlets are available in English and Spanish and links to all can be found in our news item or on our Resources & Links page under “Enrollment Resources – Overview.”
A new issue brief from the Kaiser Family Foundation looks at the difference in uninsurance rates for different ethnic groups and how the ACA has affected those rights. To read more about the brief or to download a copy, check out our news item here.
Have you heard about standardized benefit design or as they’re sometimes called, simple choice plans? These plans are designed to make shopping easier for consumers as they offer a specific set of benefits so the consumers can compare plans more easily. The Georgetown Center on Health Insurance Reforms (CHIR) has a blog post that goes into more detail about what is included in these simple choice plans and where they are offered. To read the blog post, click here.
The University of Washington, Healthy Aging & Physical Disability, Rehabilitation Research Training Center (RRTC) has released two new fact sheets that address multiple sclerosis. The first one is entitled “Which MS Symptoms Affect Mood the Most?” and can be accessed here. The second one is entitled “Maintaining Resilience in the Face of MS” and can be accessed here. If you want to know more about assisting a consumer with multiple sclerosis enroll in the marketplace, the NDNRC also has a population specific fact sheet “What to Know When Assisting a Consumer with Multiple Sclerosis” which can be accessed here.
In fact, the NDNRC has a number of population specific fact sheets aimed at assisting consumers with specific conditions, such as intellectual disability, mental illness and traumatic brain injury, to name a few. For a complete list of all the resources available through the NDNRC to assist consumers with disabilities enroll in the marketplace, check out our blog post from last month entitled “Disability Resources for OE4” which is available here.
If you missed it last week, we highlighted the updated the Navigator resource guide from the Georgetown Center on Health Insurance Reforms (CHIR). The CHIR guide goes through many of the technical questions that consumers may have when enrolling such as questions on the individual mandate, premium tax credit eligibility and special enrollment periods. The updated navigator resource guide is available here and a recent CHIR blog post about the guide is available here. The Navigator resource guide is also the first item listed on our Resources & Links page under “Enrollment Resources – Overview.”
Are you looking for local partners to help with outreach to the disability community? The NDNRC has Community Outreach Collaboratives (COCs) for Open Enrollment Year 4 (OE4). The COCs increase collaborations in the community, dissemination and outreach efforts and enrollment of people with disabilities in the ACA marketplace. To find a COC, click here.
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