Week after Thanksgiving! lets see how much damage I caused! lol
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Weekly Weigh In & Confessions! Dec 1!
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Health Insurance Quotes Reform Weekly
CALIFORNIA: The California Department of Insurance (CDI) has announced the release of e-mail notification system that will alert consumers when new individual health insurance rate filings are submitted. CDI has previously announced that it would begin publicizing rate filings for individual health insurance policies. Consumers are able to sign up online in the manner used for traditional e-mail updates. CDI has also developed a consumer website with rate filing information.
NEW JERSEY: Following recent enactment of Governor Chris Christie’s budget, the Democrat-controlled legislature passed supplemental appropriations bills to restore $24 million in funding for state’s uninsured health coverage program, known as FamilyCare, as well as $7.4 million in aid for women’s health and family planning programs. The FamilyCare restoration, if signed into law, would have allowed adults with income between 134 to 200 percent of the federal poverty level to remain in the program. Despite bipartisan support in the Senate, Governor Christie vetoed the legislation, saying that the state has reset spending to a level that taxpayers can afford. Legislative leadership has indicated they may try to override the governor’s veto. Overriding the governor’s veto would require a two-thirds majority in both houses.
NEW MEXICO: The Public Regulation Commission (PRC) has appointed John G. Franchini as the new Superintendent of Insurance, a position that has been vacant since the May 4 resignation of his predecessor, Morris Chavez. Franchini was selected from among five finalists and will assume his new duties in mid-August.
OHIO: While the Strickland Administration has advised state agencies to begin planning for the next biennium at both current levels and with a 10 percent cut in funding levels, the Budget Planning and Management Commission has been conducting hearings preparing for Ohio’s biennial budget adoption. The current budget ends on June 30, 2011 and is billions in the red. Testimony before the Commission has focused on increasing efficiencies by combining certain administrative functions of local and state governments and utilizing performance audits to determine if tax dollars are being spent efficiently. The Center for Community Solutions suggested to legislators that principal stakeholders in Medicaid (such as managed care companies and hospitals) be given budget targets and be asked to come up with ways to slow the growth of Medicaid. Conversely, the Health Policy Institute of Ohio guided legislators to the possibility of Ohio “rebalancing” its long-term care spending to shift utilization from long-term care facilities to home and community-based services.
While PPACA-related budget priorities will take place after the next biennial budget is adopted, it was previously determined that the federal expansion of Medicaid eligibility as part of health care reform will cost the state $190 million in 2014 –rising to $332 million by 2019. Absent any federal law changes, annual costs will rise substantially in 2020 and beyond, as the federal government’s match for new enrollees will drop to 90 percent of the total cost. The total state cost of Medicaid expansion from 2014 to 2019 is projected to be $1.45 billion.
OKLAHOMA: The Department of Insurance (DOI) announced last week that a final contract for the new temporary high-risk pool has been signed and sent back to HHS. The DOI is in the process of drafting the application that will be used with the pool. Oklahoma was awarded $60 million for use over 40 months. Several candidates are being interviewed to be the High Risk Pool Manager. Open enrollment will begin August 1 with an effective date of September 1. Additionally, Oklahoma was the only state to request an open enrollment period for the PPACA provision requiring coverage of children under 19 in the individual market. HHS has decided open enrollment periods will be permitted at the discretion of insurance companies. On a separate issue, the Oklahoma Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments to take place on August 4 in the lawsuit filed by Commissioner Kim Holland, on behalf of the DOI, challenging the constitutionality of a new 1 percent claims-paid fee passed by the legislature in late May. The bill is scheduled to take effect August 27, absent court intervention.
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Health Care Reform Weekly Easytoinsureme Health Insurance Quotes
Week of January 25, 2010
The sudden halt to health care reform’s steady march forward came as a shock to many who saw an upset win by Republican Senator-elect Scott Brown in Massachusetts as all but impossible. But if many took delight in the election outcome’s impact on health reform legislation, Aetna Chairman Ronald A. Williams made it clear in a New York Times story last week that the country still needs meaningful health care reform – reform that addresses access as well as affordability. Everyone benefits by health reform that gets at the factors driving soaring health care costs and the loss of coverage for so many Americans. While Congress thinks carefully about its next steps, Aetna will continue to support meaningful health care reform and continue to offer responsible solutions to legislative leaders.
Federal
The election of Republican Scott Brown as the new senator from Massachusetts has derailed the Congressional health care reform train, less because Brown denies Democrats the 60th filibuster-proof vote, though that is certainly a major result, and more because it collapsed the Democratic political house of cards by highlighting the power of independent voters and the frustrated anti-incumbent mood of the electorate. Whether Democrats can regroup from this wake-up call will consume their leadership from now until the November off-year elections. How Democrats handle, and how Republicans respond to, health care reform in the short term and other key priorities – such as jobs, the economy, energy and security – over the rest of the session will underscore all Congressional decisions from now until the first Tuesday in November. In short, the 2010 elections started in earnest with Brown’s victory.
Once Democrats get past the shock of losing Kennedy’s seat, they will have to grapple with health care reform, one way or the other. The early favorites, including passing the Senate bill “as is” in the House, have been dropped for now as Democrats recognize the political cost of ramming through something unpopular propelled by political muscle only. Passing a smaller, less invasive and mostly Democratic bill has only a slightly better chance, as Republicans are not too likely to “crossover” quite yet. There is a growing interest in using reconciliation (the 51-vote tactic) down the road to pass a Democratic-only bill, once the House and Senate Democratic leadership can agree to a single bill. And, there is the outside chance that Democrats will see the Massachusetts election as an imperative to craft a bipartisan bill with Republicans that can secure 70-plus votes in the Senate. Wednesday’s State of the Union speech, followed by the party issues retreats later in the week, will go a long way toward determining which path will be pursued.
Health Insurance Reform Weekly Easy To Insure Me Health Insurance Quotes
February 17, 2010
The Week in Health Reform–Federal Legislative Overview
House and Senate
Things were quiet last week in Washington due to the 30 plus inches of snow the area received. On Feb. 9 House leaders announced that due to the heavy snow in the area they would suspend votes in the House for the remainder of the week. Congress will not be in session this week due to the President’s Day recess and will reconvene the week of Feb. 22.
As a result of the congressional schedule, the timeframe for a floor vote on the McCarran-Ferguson antitrust legislation will be pushed back until the week of Feb. 22 at the earliest. Reports have stated that the antitrust bill is part of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) strategy of moving smaller pieces of health care legislation quickly to help build momentum for a comprehensive health care reform bill. The Speaker also continues to urge House Democrats to pass the Senate bill as long as it is accompanied by a separate “reconciliation” bill that would “fix” key provisions in the Senate bill (e.g., raising the threshold for the Cadillac tax and dropping the Nebraska Medicaid provisions) to satisfy some members of her caucus.
The Senate remained in session last week, despite the weather, although Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) stated that the Senate would not conduct any votes. On Feb. 11, Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) and Ranking Member Charles Grassley (R-IA) released the highly anticipated “jobs bill” – The Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act.
Senators Baucus and Grassley issued a joint statement, emphasizing that this bill was drafted with bipartisan input. They further stated: “We also agree that, once properly reviewed, the package should be considered in a deliberate, but expeditious manner. Any efforts to needlessly delay Senate completion of consideration of this package through partisan means will undermine our goal of timely action in the current economic climate. Action on the expired provisions is long overdue. Timely action on incentives for economic activity and job creation also is needed.”
Hours after details of the “HIRE” legislation were released, Majority Leader Reid publicly stated that he was scrapping the bill. Reid told reporters that when the Senate returns from its recess on Feb. 22, “we will move to a smaller package than has been talked about in the press.” Reid went on to state that some of the tax provisions included in the legislation – key to garnering Republican support for the deal – “confuse” the bill. Reid went on to say that, “we don’t have a jobs bill. We have a jobs agenda.”
The draft “HIRE” legislation addresses a number of key health care issues:
* The bill extends, by three months, the eligibility period for premium subsidies for state continuation coverage and COBRA continuation coverage to include persons who are unemployed on or before May 31, 2010. The bill also clarifies that these subsidies are available to persons who are involuntarily terminated from their jobs after previously losing their employer-sponsored coverage due to a reduction in hours. The premium subsidies originally were enacted as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, also known as the “stimulus bill.”
* The bill provides for a seven-month Medicare physician payment fix (sometimes known as the “doc-fix”), maintaining physician payment rates at their current levels through Sept. 30, 2010. Under current law, in the absence of congressional action, physicians are scheduled to face a steep rate reduction on March 1.
* The bill provides for a one-year extension of both Medicare Advantage Special Needs Plans (section 626) and Medicare Cost Plans (section 627).
* The bill includes numerous provisions addressing Medicare fee-for-service reimbursement issues.
White House Health Care Reform Summit
In a pre-Super Bowl interview on CBS, President Obama said that he would like to host a televised health care summit with Republican and Democratic congressional leaders on Feb. 25. While specific details are not yet available, the summit represents the Obama Administration’s latest strategy to jumpstart the health care reform debate and seeks bipartisan cooperation following the loss of the Democrats’ supermajority in the Senate. Republican leaders expressed interest in the summit, and House Republican Leader John Boehner (OH) issued a statement saying that, “The best way to start on real, bipartisan reform would be to scrap those bills and focus on the kind of step-by-step improvements that will lower health care costs and expand access.” In response, White House officials insisted that the President is not interested in starting from scratch on health reform.
This week Democratic and Republican congressional leaders also met with President Obama at the White House to discuss the jobs bill, health reform, energy, trade and other legislative priorities.
Following the meeting, the President spoke with reporters and he made the following comments about health reform: “I’m going to be starting from scratch in the sense that I will be open to any ideas that help promote these goals. What I will not do, what I don’t think makes sense and I don’t think the American people want to see, would be another year of partisan wrangling around these issues; another six months or eight months or nine months worth of hearings in every single committee in the House and the Senate in which there’s a lot of posturing. Let’s get the relevant parties together; let’s put the best ideas on the table. My hope is that we can find enough overlap that we can say this is the right way to move forward, even if I don’t get every single thing that I want.
