COVID-19 & Healthcare

Health care reform: Can improved financial access to health care services also improve geographic access to health care services?

by

By Craig McDermott, cross-posted from Random Musings

 

On Friday, Government Executive, essentially a business newspaper for
people whose "business" is government agency operations, published an
"insider baseball" sort of article.  It relates to areas that are designated as "medically underserved areas" (MUAs).

Federal employees are covered covered under slightly different health insurance reimbursement rules when they work in MUAs.

From the article, written by Eric Katz –

The statute that governs the Federal Employees Health Benefit Program
requires OPM to determine which states have “critical shortages of
primary care physicians.” Employees in these states — known as
“medically underserved areas” — receive reimbursement for covered
services by any licensed provider in the state.

 The next lines in the article are the ones that caught my attention (emphasis added) –

OPM [the federal Office of Personnel Management, basically the federal government's version of an HR department] calculates which states are underserved using data from the Health
and Human Services Departments, as well as the Census Bureau. If at
least 25 percent of the state’s population lives in a “primary medical
care manpower shortage area” — as determined by HHS — the state is
considered underserved.

The 12 states that will receive the distinctive consideration in 2014
are Alabama, Arizona, Idaho, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri,
New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Wyoming.

 After first noticing that most of the states listed are "red" states (hey, this is *political* blog, not a *medical* one...), I noticed that most of the states listed, other than Illinois, are known as being very rural.

Which sent my thoughts off on a tangent (hence, this post.  🙂 )

‘ObamaCare’ tax subsides will reduce the premium cost of health insurance

by

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

There has been some seriously "craptacular" reporting by conservative media about the alleged premium "rate shock" in insurance rates under "ObamaCare." Every time you see one of these reports about premium “rate shock,” make certain you note whether the reporting accounts for tax subsidies or not.

Adrianna McIntyre from Project Millenial reports, Most young adults on the individual market today will qualify for subsidies in 2014:

The Kaiser Family Foundation has a new report out that examines how people currently in
the individual market will be affected by the reforms taking effect in
2014. Premiums will change for  variety of reasons. You should read the whole issue brief, or Jon Cohn’s commentary here. As
Kaiser acknowledges, premiums will go up for some people and down for
others. They go a step further, though, and look at how many people in
the current market will benefit from the premium tax subsidies.

About half (48%) of
people now buying their own insurance would be eligible for a tax credit
that would offset their premium. This does not include over one million
adults buying individual insurance today who will be eligible for
Medicaid starting in 2014 (i.e., they have family income up to 138% of
the poverty level and are living in states that have decided to expand Medicaid under the ACA).

OFA ad ‘Every Day’ touts the benefits of ‘ObamaCare’

by

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

A new ad from Organizing for Action (OFA) touts the benefits of ObamaCare, its third national ad as the administration readies to rollout healthcare reforms. Obama group’s new ad touts healthcare law insurance rebates:

The new ad from Organizing for Action (OFA), titled “Every Day,”
features a North Carolina family discussing the insurance rebate they
received under the healthcare law. The parents, Rebecca and Russell,
worried about how to pay for their son’s medical care in the face of
rising premiums.

“When the Affordable Care Act was passed we ended up getting a $350
rebate from our insurance company and then his premiums were going to go
down by $60 a month,” says Rebecca in the ad.

“ObamaCare is helping everyday families every day,” reads onscreen text.

 “It’s nice to see somebody looking out for the little guy,” says the father Russell. 

“The law works,” Rebecca adds.

‘Navigators’ for the Health Insurance Exchanges Coming Soon

by

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

An important report on health care insurance "navigators" from the New York Times today. The Challenge of Helping the Uninsured Find Coverage:

Like many organizations across the country, Ms. Daily’s agency, Northern Virginia Family Service, is hoping to win a federal grant to help uninsured people in the state sign up for coverage under President Obama’s health care law.
With the money, she hopes to hire at least a handful of “navigators” — a
new category of worker created under the law to educate consumers about
new health insurance options and, starting in October, to walk them through the enrollment process.

Navigators are seen as crucial to the success of the law. As the Jan. 1
deadline approaches when most Americans will be required to have health
coverage or pay a fine,  navigators are supposed to explain away
confusion and fear among the legions of uninsured, helping them
understand how new health insurance markets will work and whether they
will qualify for subsidies to help with the cost of coverage.