SENATE RELEASES ITS VERSION OF ACA REPEAL
Yesterday, the Senate released its long-awaited version of an ACA repeal or as the Senate is calling it, the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017 (BCRA). Previously, we had blogged about how the House’s American Health Care Act (AHCA) would affect people with disabilities (once in March when the AHCA was originally introduced and once in May on the final version of the AHCA passed by the House). We now have a new blog post entitled “What the Senate Version of the ACA Repeal Would Mean for People with Disabilities.” For a broader discussion on the BCRA, check out the blog post on Health Affairs.
As members of many coalitions, such as the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities, Disability and Aging Collaborative, Mental Health Liaison Group, and the Protect Our Care Coalition, we at AAHD are analyzing and continuing our advocacy. As stated in our blog posts referenced above, AAHD opposes both the AHCA and the BCRA. Advocacy statements are posted on the AAHD public policy updates web page. If you’re interested in our advocacy efforts around the ACA repeal, then check out our last Action Alert. You can also view our NDNRC statement on health reform which we released after the elections last November. In the statement entitled “Preserve the Protections Provided by the Affordable Care Act,” we call on Congress and the Administration to protect provisions in the ACA which have benefited people with disabilities. The full statement can be found on our website, where it is also available in a PDF download, by clicking here.
Other helpful resources for advocacy on the AHCA/BCRA include a blog post from the National Health Law Program (NHeLP) entitled “How Proposed Health Care Cuts Would Harm Care for People with Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities.” This is a part of NHeLP’s Health Advocate Blog. Justice in Aging also has some state specific fact sheets on how the AHCA would affect older adults in 17 states.
The Kaiser Family Foundation has released a new interactive state-by-state map which shows the current statistics which would be affected by the repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). To learn more about the map including what statistics are included for each state, check out our news item. Another interactive map from the Kaiser Family Foundation shows the 44 counties across the country which are at risk for having no insurers offering coverage on the marketplace. These counties are located in three states (MO, OH & WA) and represent 31,268 enrollees in 2017.
The Kaiser Family Foundation has also released a series of state specific fact sheets which address the number of people covered by Medicaid in each state and what a Medicaid block grant or per capita cap would mean for each state.
On Wednesday, June 28, we will be presenting on a webinar for the Disability Business Acumen Center of the National Association of States United for Aging and Disabilities. The webinar is entitled “Are We Saying the Same Thing? The Language of Long Term Services and Supports and Managed Care.” The words people and organizations use demonstrates their perspective on an issue and provides a frame of reference for discussions. However, different fields, populations and organizations have varying degrees of understanding and use of the terminologies used by those they may want to do business with. Community Based Organizations (CBO) looking to work with new integrated care/service systems such as Managed Long-Term Services and Supports (MLTSS) need to understand the common terminology used in those systems. Join us on June 28, 2017 from 12:30 – 1:30P ET to learn more about how the use of a common language can help further your efforts to develop collaborative relationships with health plans and other integrated care or service systems while continuing to further your mission. Register now for this webinar.
We previously reported on the market stabilization rules that HHS issued which would have a direct impact on Special Enrollment Periods (SEPs). The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities will be hosting two webinars on July 6 & 7 which will provide an overview of policy changes in the Marketplace and will discuss the new verification process for SEPs. The information for the webinars is as follows:
Preparing for 2018: Overview of Changes in the Marketplace: Thursday, July 6, 2017 at 12:00-1:00 pm ET
Changes to SEPs and Pre-Enrollment Verification: Friday, July 7, 2017 at 12:00-1:00 pm ET
Another change from the market stabilization rules was to allow a larger variation from the actuarial values for each metal level. If you want to learn more about what this means for the coming open enrollment, check out the blog post by the Georgetown University Center on Health Insurance Reforms.
If you missed it last week, AAHD is co-sponsoring a congressional briefing next week on “The Value of Rehabilitation and Habilitation Services and Devices”. This bipartisan briefing will occur next week on Tuesday, June 27 at 12:00 PM to 1:30 PM in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, room SD-106. To read more about the speakers and content of the briefing, check out our news item. For more information on rehabilitation and habilitation, check out our NDNRC fact sheet “Rehabilitation and Habilitation Services and Devices.”
The CDC funded New Hampshire Disability and Public Health Project has released 30-minute video: Be Active, Eat Healthy, Have Fun: Promoting the health of people with IDD. The video was created from material presented to the Best Buddies Friendship chapters in response to a request from them to provide information about health disparities experienced by people with IDD. If you do use the video, they also have a short evaluation survey.
The University of Washington Healthy Aging Rehabilitation Research Training Center (RRTC) has released a plain language summary of an article entitled “Using Technology to Gather Health Information in the Home and Community Life of People Aging with Disabilities.” This summary is available here.
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. To find a COC, click here.
To access the archives for our weekly updates click here.
The NDNRC is an initiative aimed at providing cross-disability information and support to Navigators, enrollment specialists and consumers thereby ensuring people with disabilities receive accurate information when selecting and enrolling in the health insurance marketplaces. The NDNRC website can be found at: https://nationaldisabilitynavigator.org/.
