SENATE CONTINUES CONSIDERATION OF THE BCRA

As the Senate continues to consider the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017 (BCRA), the Kaiser Family Foundation has released a new issue brief which examines an amendment to the BCRA proposed by Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX). In short, this amendment would allow insurance companies to sell plans on the marketplace which would not comply with the Essential Health Benefit (EHBs) regulations found in the Affordable Care Act (ACA). To read more about the brief or to download a copy, check out our news item. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has also released a report examining the effects of the Cruz amendment.

We have already posted an analysis of the BCRA on our blog. The post is entitled “What the Senate’s BCRA Would Mean for People with Disabilities.” Previously, we had blogged about how the House’s American Health Care Act (AHCA) would affect people with disabilities (once in March when the AHCA was originally introduced and once in May on the final version of the AHCA passed by the House).

As stated in our blog posts referenced above, AAHD opposes both the AHCA and the BCRA. If you’re interested in our advocacy efforts around the ACA repeal, then check out our Action Alert from last week. You can also view our NDNRC statement on health reform which we released after the elections last November. In the statement entitled “Preserve the Protections Provided by the Affordable Care Act,” we call on Congress and the Administration to protect provisions in the ACA which have benefited people with disabilities. The full statement can be found on our website, where it is also available in a PDF download, by clicking here.

Some other resources to help with advocacy on the BCRA are:

• National Health Council: Video entitled “The Real Impact of the Senate Health Care Bill”
• Families USA: 12 state fact sheets showing the effect the BCRA would have on deductibles (states include: AK, AZ, AR, KS, LA, ME, NE, NV, OH, SC, WV & WI and are also available on the NDNRC’s individual state pages which can be accessed through our State Resource Guide Map)

Throughout the debate on health reform this year, there’s been a lot of discussion regarding the stability of the current health insurance marketplaces. The Kaiser Family Foundation has released a new issue brief which examines how stable the individual marketplace has been in the first part of 2017. To learn more about this issue brief or to download a copy, check out our news item.

Last Friday, the Alliance for Health Policy hosted a briefing entitled “Understanding What’s Next for Medicaid.” The briefing examined how Medicaid would be affected by the current proposed bills pending in Congress. A video of the briefing along with copies of the agenda, transcript and presentations is available on the Alliance’s website.

While a lot has been said about how the AHCA and BCRA would affect Medicaid, the Kaiser Family Foundation has a new issue brief examining the implications for the two bills on Medicare.

Are you interested in helping local and/or state disability organizations develop a better business acumen? Today is the last day to apply for the NASUAD Business Acumen Learning Collaborative. To learn more about the Learning Collaborative, check out the NASUAD website.

The University of Washington, Healthy Aging & Physical Disability, Rehabilitation Research Training Center (RRTC) has released a new fact sheet entitled “How to Make Healthcare Accessible for All.” To download a copy of this fact sheet, click here.

Are you looking for local partners to help with outreach to the disability community? The NDNRC has Community Outreach Collaboratives (COCs) which work to 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.

To access the archives for our weekly updates click here.