COUNTING DOWN 10 DAYS UNTIL THE ACA TURNS 10
This month represents the 10-year anniversary of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) becoming law and in just 10 days, the ACA will have been the law of the land for 10 years. Throughout the month we are highlighting opportunities for you to celebrate what the ACA means for consumers and especially people with disabilities. Today we started a series of 10 blog posts which highlight the importance of the ACA for people with disabilities. Today’s blog post highlights the important protection that the ACA provides by prohibiting denial of coverage due to pre-existing conditions. Our schedule for all our blog posts over the next 10 days is as follows:
- Friday, 3/13: Prohibition against Denial of Coverage for Pre-Existing Conditions
- Saturday, 3/14: Guaranteed Renewability of Coverage
- Sunday, 3/15: Prohibition against Individual Underwriting
- Monday, 3/16: Essential Health Benefits Required in Every Qualified Health Plan
- Tuesday, 3/17: Prohibition against Lifetime Monetary Caps
- Wednesday, 3/18: Prohibition against Discrimination in Health Programs
- Thursday, 3/19: Extension of Mental Health Parity to the Individual and Small Group Market
- Friday, 3/20: Medicaid Expansion
- Saturday, 3/21: Highlighting Other Protections/Benefits
- Sunday, 3/22: Advocacy – The Future of the ACA
As part of the celebrations this month, AAHD will be participating in two Twitter chats. The first one is being hosted by Young Invincibles and will be on Tuesday, March 17 from 3:00-4:00 PM ET. You can follow along using #TodaysVoicesTues. On Monday, March 23, which represents the actual anniversary date of the ACA, Raising Women’s Voices will host a chat from 3:00-4:00 PM ET. For that chat, you can follow along using #ACA10.
Young Invincibles has also developed a toolkit for the 10th anniversary of the ACA. The toolkit has key messages and calendar for theme days for the days leading up to March 23. Next Friday, March 20 is the theme day to celebrate what the ACA means for people with disabilities. The toolkit also includes sample social media posts which you can use over the course of the theme days.
AAHD is working with Community Catalyst and other partners in conducting outreach to educate individuals about health insurance literacy, special enrollment periods (SEPs) and other issues related to healthcare enrollment. Recently, several new resources were released including graphics like the one below which encourage people to find a primary care doctor after they’ve gotten insurance. Links to the graphics can be found in our blog post. Community Catalyst has an Outreach Hub which has a wide variety of graphics addressing many different areas. To learn more about the project we are doing with Community Catalyst, check out our earlier news item.
In January, CMS issued guidance to states on what it would consider if states wanted to implement a Medicaid block grant for their state. (You can learn more about the CMS proposal in our news item.) AAHD has significant concerns about the Medicaid block grant proposal and what it would mean for people with disabilities. See our blog post for AAHD’s statement of opposition and our news item on resources from other organizations. This week, we added a post from Community Catalyst on the consequences that block grants could have for people with disabilities.
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.