HELP Committee Holds Hearing on Individual Health Insurance Market
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee recently held the first hearing of several about ways to stabilize premiums and help individuals in the individual insurance market. The Committee heard from five different state insurance commissioners regarding their experiences with the individual insurance marketplaces under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Most of the testimony focused on the need to fund cost-sharing reduction (CSR) payments, increase flexibility under the ACA’s section 1332 waiver program and establish a federal reinsurance program. There was bipartisan interest in stabili...
Source: Policy and Medicine - September 15, 2017 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan - Policy & Medicine Writing Staff Source Type: blogs
Dear Republicans, There Are Second Acts In Washington
By STEVEN FINDLAY
Nazis and white supremacists. Charlottesville. Immigration policy and DACA. Climate change. In the context of these issues, there’s been much discussion of late about moral and ethical principles and American values.
There is, of course, no moral equivalency between white supremacists and those who oppose and protest them. People who advocate white supremacy are just plain wrong, on moral grounds.
And the Trump administration is clearly pursuing a path on immigration policy and climate change that is contrary to the ethical standards and values of the vast majority of Americans. I would...
Source: The Health Care Blog - September 12, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Irvine Tags: Uncategorized Charlottesville Obamacare Republicans Source Type: blogs
Governors Testify In Second Day Of HELP Hearings
At the beginning of the second day of the bipartisan Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee hearings on short term market stabilization, committee chair Lamar Alexander (R-TN) summarized what he thinks is needed to achieve stabilization. His list began with funding of the cost-sharing reduction program. He also acknowledged widespread support for short-term reinsurance funding, although he suggested that states should have a role in providing it. In other news, on September 5, a federal trial court judge denied motions to dismiss in a case claiming discrimination in violation of section 1557 of the ...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - September 7, 2017 Category: Health Management Authors: Timothy Jost Tags: Following the ACA Insurance and Coverage Source Type: blogs
Calendar ’s Turn Brings New Congressional Approach To Health Reform
As congressional Republicans tried to adopt one bill after another all summer long by narrow partisan margins, they kept hearing the same message from Democrats and others: Why not try bipartisanship? Why not hold hearings, as the Democrats did in the spring and summer of 2009 leading up to the adoption of the ACA, and hear what stakeholders and experts from across the political spectrum think needs to be done to fix health care.
The Hearing Line-Up
As September begins, the Senate has scheduled a host of hearings. The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, led by Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Patty ...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - September 6, 2017 Category: Health Management Authors: Timothy Jost Tags: Following the ACA Insurance and Coverage Source Type: blogs
A Glimmer of Bipartisanship on the ACA
Bipartisan approaches to improving the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are having a moment in the sun. In a new post on To the Point, Commonwealth Fund President David Blumenthal, M.D., reviews the significance and prospects of such efforts as the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee hearings on bipartisan solutions to stabilizing private health insurance markets; the work of the Problem-Solvers, a new caucus of House Democrats and Republicans; and a bipartisan plan from eight governors.
(Source: The Commonwealth Fund: Blog)
Source: The Commonwealth Fund: Blog - September 5, 2017 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: blogs
Psychology Around the Net: September 2, 2017
Happy Saturday, sweet readers!
If you’re here in America, I hope you’re taking advantage of the three-day holiday weekend — unless, of course, you or a loved one has been hit by tragedy Hurricane Harvey has caused. I’ve seen so many donation requests over the past few days — everything from money to basic items you wouldn’t even think of (at least I didn’t) like diapers — and it makes me proud to know that even in this country’s turbulent times, we’re still here for each other.
Still, no amount of donations can help the psychological impact such devastation cause...
Source: World of Psychology - September 2, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Alicia Sparks Tags: Celebrities Creativity Industrial and Workplace Men's Issues Mindfulness Money and Financial Psychology Around the Net Research Suicide Women's Issues Emotions Logic Meditation Mindfulness Meditation National Suicide Prevention Source Type: blogs
ACA Round-Up: Governors Offer Individual Market Stabilization Proposals And More
On August 30, 2017, governors John Kasich of Ohio, John Hickenlooper of Colorado, and six other Republican, Democratic, and Independent governors sent a letter to the Republican and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate asking them to take immediate steps to restore stability and affordability to the individual health insurance market. The letter was sent ahead of the testimony governors are expected to offer to the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee on September 7.
The immediate steps recommended by the governors include:
funding cost-sharing reduction payments through 2019;
creating a temporary...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - September 1, 2017 Category: Health Management Authors: Timothy Jost Tags: Following the ACA Insurance and Coverage budget reconciliation governors John Hickenlooper John Kasich out-of-network billing States Source Type: blogs
Insurance Commissioners And The Feds: Time For Some Relationship Counseling?
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) effectively created a shotgun marriage between state insurance regulators and the US Department of Health and Human Services who then had to provide oversight of their baby — the individual insurance market. The relationship has been complicated since the start: the insurance market has proved to be a problem child and the federal government has not been the most reliable spouse and parent recently.
Next Wednesday’s Senate Health Education, Labor, and Pension (HELP) Committee hearing, “Stabilizing Premiums and Helping Individuals in the Individual Insurance Market for 2018: Insurance...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - September 1, 2017 Category: Health Management Authors: Christopher Koller Tags: Following the ACA Insurance and Coverage individual market Source Type: blogs
ACA Round-Up: Hospital Nonprofit Status, ACA Nondiscrimination Litigation, And More
American non-profit hospitals have long qualified for tax exempt status under federal law as “charitable” organizations. They are often afforded exempt status from state and local property, sales, and income tax under similar requirements. The Affordable Care Act imposed additional requirements that hospitals must meet if they wish to retain federal tax exempt status. These include:
Establishing written financial assistance and emergency medical care policies,
Limiting amounts charged for emergency or other medically necessary care to individuals eligible for assistance,
Making reasonable efforts to determine whether ...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - August 18, 2017 Category: Health Management Authors: Timothy Jost Tags: Following the ACA Hospitals Insurance and Coverage ACA section 1557 cost-sharing reduction payments nonprofit hospitals Source Type: blogs
As Bipartisan Plans for ACA Fixes Emerge, Will Congress Act? Probably Not.
By STEVEN FINDLAY
A bipartisan group of health policy experts has issued a call to action and well-thought-out consensus plan for insurance market stabilization and incremental reform.
The effort adds to the gathering momentum in Washington for urgent fixes to Obamacare, plus additional reforms that might bring conservatives into the fold and appeal across the partisan divide. What’s still unclear, however, is whether the Trump administration and Republican leadership in Congress will go along. Outward signs suggest they won’t, but this game is still changing by the day.
Trump continues to tweet-shame McConnell...
Source: The Health Care Blog - August 11, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Irvine Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
What Could Happen If The Administration Stops Cost-Sharing Reduction Payments To Insurers?
Although the decision of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to allow attorneys general from 17 states and the District of Columbia to join the House v. Price cost-sharing reduction (CSR) litigation as parties complicates President Trump’s ability to simply stop the CSR payments, rumors continue that he is preparing to do so. The CSR payments are made monthly; the next installment is due on August 21, 2017. If the administration intends not to make the August payment, it must announce its decision soon.
Changes to qualified health plan (QHP) applications in the federally facilitated exchange (FFE) a...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - August 2, 2017 Category: Health Management Authors: Timothy Jost Tags: Following the ACA Insurance and Coverage California cost-sharing reduction payments Covered California house v. price risk adjustment Source Type: blogs
Re-employment of staff in receipt of NHS pension scheme benefits
Department of Health (DH) - This document provides guidance on how to consider applications from staff wishing to retire and return to work for the NHS. It aims to help employers put in place policies and procedures so that decisions to re-employ staff can be justified in terms of service need and value for money.GuidanceDH publications (Source: Health Management Specialist Library)
Source: Health Management Specialist Library - August 2, 2017 Category: UK Health Authors: The King ' s Fund Information & Knowledge Service Tags: Workforce and employment Source Type: blogs
What ’s Next for Venezuela?
Yesterday ’sfraudulent and illegitimate vote to install a constituent assembly in Venezuela is the definitive step towards consolidating ade jure dictatorship in that country.The constituent assembly will enjoy supra-constitutional powers, which means that its prerogatives go beyond writing a new constitution and include,inter alia, dissolving and removing all existing institutions —including those controlled by the opposition or held by critics of the regime, such as the National Assembly and the Attorney General’s Office—and calling off scheduled elections, which the government would certainly lose. In the hours ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - July 31, 2017 Category: American Health Authors: Juan Carlos Hidalgo Source Type: blogs
Single-Payer is the American Way
By MARGALIT GUR-ARIE
As is customary for every administration in recent history, the Trump administration chose to impale itself on the national spear known as health care in America. The consequences so far are precisely as I expected, but one intriguing phenomenon is surprisingly beginning to emerge. People are starting to talk about single-payer. People who are not avowed socialists, people who benefit handsomely from the health care status quo seem to feel a need to address this four hundred pound gorilla, sitting patiently in a corner of our health care situation room. Why?
The all too public spectacle of a Republic...
Source: The Health Care Blog - July 31, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Irvine Tags: Uncategorized Adam Smith Apple Healthcare system Margalit Gur-Arie Republican Party Single payer Source Type: blogs
UBC's Faculty Pension Plan, for dummies
Yesterday I went to an information session about UBC's Faculty Pension Plan, designed for faculty approaching the age when we have to decide what to do with the money the Plan has accumulated on our behalf. Even if we choose not to retire (or not yet), by age 71 contributions to the Plan will end and we must make a decision.Until retirement or age 71, the Plan has been taking money from our salaries and from UBC's pockets, and investing it in something they call their Balanced Fund. (Yes, if you know what you're doing you can change the investment mix.) The info session told us that this fund does pretty wel...
Source: RRResearch - July 27, 2017 Category: Molecular Biology Authors: Rosie Redfield Source Type: blogs
