NEW #COVERAGEMATTERS CAMPAIGN
HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell has launched a new campaign entitled #CoverageMatters. The campaign is meant to highlight stories of those who have been positively affected by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the coverage that it provides. To read Secretary Burwell’s blog post about the campaign, click here. HHS has also developed a social media toolkit to help promote the #CoverageMatters campaign. That toolkit which includes resources in English and Spanish is available here.
If you missed it last week, the NDNRC released a statement entitled “Preserve the Protections Provided by the Affordable Care Act” where we call on the next Congress and Administration to protect provisions in the ACA which have been a benefit to people with disabilities, including the prohibition against denial of coverage for pre-existing conditions, guaranteed renewability of coverage, prohibition against individual underwriting, essential health benefits required in every qualified health plan, prohibition against lifetime monetary caps, prohibition against discrimination in health programs, extension of the mental health parity to the individual and small group market and Medicaid expansion. To read our news item on this statement, click here. The full statement can be found on our website, where it is also available in a PDF download, by clicking here.
The NDNRC continues to monitor the politics around the Affordable Care Act. As we stated in our blog last month, it is important to remember that the health insurance marketplace remains open and enrollment continues. Last month’s blog post (available here) highlighted the important messages that need to be impressed on consumers and included links to articles from the Georgetown Center on Health Insurance Reforms, Families USA, Health Affairs and NASHP on the aftereffects of the election. This week the Health Affairs blog takes a broader look at the ACA with a post entitled “Taking Stock of Health Reform: Where We’ve Been, Where We’re Going.” To read this blog post, click here.
The Kaiser Family Foundation has released a new issue brief which examines the implications for coverage if the Medicaid expansion under the ACA was repealed. The brief entitled “What Coverage and Financing is at Risk Under a Repeal of the ACA Medicaid Expansion?” looks at the rationale behind the Medicaid expansion and what coverage and financing would be at risk. To learn more about the brief or to download a copy, check out our news item here.
The Kaiser Family Foundation has also updated their chart showing the number of consumers in each state which take advantage of the premium tax credits under the ACA along with the amount of credits received in each state. To view this chart, click here.
The Alliance for Health Reform held a post-election symposium last month to look at the future of health reform in 2017. The video and transcripts for the panels conducted at this symposium are available here.
Last week, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the Eligibility Determinations and Enrollment Report from September 2016. To read the report from CMS, click here. This report can also be found on our Resources & Links page under “Enrollment Statistics.” Prior Medicaid enrollment reports from CMS, are archived on our website here. As for enrollment data for the marketplace, CMS recently released an enrollment snapshot that looked at open enrollment through the first four weeks. To view this snapshot, click here.
The University of Washington, Healthy Aging & Physical Disability, Rehabilitation Research Training Center (RRTC) has recently released a fact sheet entitled “Aging with a Disability: Tips for your Sex Life.” This fact sheet can be accessed here.
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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