MEDICAID EXPANSION CUT UNINSURED RATE IN RURAL AMERICA
A new report states that the uninsured rate has decreased by more than half for low-income, non-elderly, rural adults in Medicaid expansion states under the ACA. To read more about this report or to download a copy, check out our news item. To learn more about this report, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) has also posted about the report’s findings in their blog.
Another item of interest from the CBPP blog looks at “Four Ways States Can Expand Access to Opioid Treatment Through Medicaid.”
CMS released the list or organizations which had been awarded navigator grants in the federally facilitated marketplace states earlier this month. The last few weeks we have been highlighting resources which highlight the importance of the navigator program and the concerns which are raised by the significant cuts in funding for the navigators. The newest such post is a blog post from the Georgetown University Center on Health Insurance Reforms (CHIR) entitled “Massive Navigator Funding Cuts Pose Risks for Consumers, Marketplaces.” To learn more about the navigator awards, check out our news item.
The CHIR also has a new blog post this week looking at the recent grants provided by HHS to states to help them address the stability of their health insurance marketplaces. Many of the proposals from states could potentially affect the Essential Health Benefits available in each plan within the state. To read more, check out the CHIR blog post.
With open enrollment approaching, CBPP has announced its fall “Beyond the Basics” webinar series to help you get ready. The topics, dates and times of future webinars can be found in our news item and the recordings and slides from the first two webinars have been archived:
We published a blog post in February which captures all the news and resources on the waivers where states are adding work requirements to their Medicaid programs. We recently added a new blog post from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) on some new studies which demonstrate the harm that the Medicaid work requirements are having. The blog post also includes links to all our news items on Medicaid work requirements, including the news item we highlighted last week which addresses the thousands of individuals who lost coverage due to Arkansas’s Medicaid work requirements.
The Collaborative on Health Reform and Independent Living (CHRIL) is looking for volunteers for their “Disability Stories Project.” Specifically, they are looking for individuals with disabilities who would be willing to share how the need for health insurance affects choices about participating in disability programs or working. They are also inviting anyone to join between the ages of 18-64 who has a story to tell about how issues in health policy have affected them. To learn more about this project, check out the Disability Stories Project page on the CHRIL website. If you’re interested in being interviewed for this project, they will be conducting interviews during the APRIL Conference in Denver, CO next week. The interview form can be found on the Disability Stories Project page linked above.
The NASUAD Disability Business Acumen Center is hosting a webinar this afternoon from 12:30-1:30 PM ET entitled “Adapting to the Environment: How One Organization Maximized Opportunity.” This webinar will be presented by Dina Casalaspro, Managing Director of Community Options Enterprises, Inc. as she shares what lead her organization to develop a creative and self-sustaining business model with a hybrid payer structure, where customer purchased services and office rentals support the cost of operations. You can also learn more about this model in an interview with Dina in this YouTube video.
If you want to learn more about our new project with the NIH’s All of Us Research Project, check out the Frequently Asked Questions document about the program.
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. You can find a COC, on the COC page of our website.
Archives of our weekly updates are available on the NDNRC website.