CT Health Reform
Exchange affordability measure gutted in committee
In yesterday’s Insurance Committee meeting, SB-11was amended to delay CT’s insurance exchange negotiating premiums with insurers and changed “shall” to “may”, essentially making the legislation irrelevant. The exchange has refused to negotiate with insurers in the past, arguing among other things that it was too early to worry about high premiums. Since last year, exchanges…
Read MoreExchange active purchasing bill has a public hearing
The legislature’s Insurance and Real Estate Committee has raised SB-11, An Act Concerning the Duties of the CT Health Insurance Exchange, and will hold a public hearing on the bill next Tuesday. SB-11 requires the CT Health Insurance Exchange to active purchase health coverage for the estimated one in ten state residents who will purchase…
Read MoreNew exchange numbers – good news but lots of questions
CT’s health insurance exchange has enrolled 121,983 people into coverage, exceeding next month’s goal. In other good news, CT is beginning to catch up to other states in Medicaid enrollment – 71,318 (58%) of those enrollments were into Medicaid, 22,335 (31%) of those would have qualified for Medicaid without the ACA. The exchange estimates that…
Read MoreCT’s Medicaid success: Access and quality are up, costs are down
Since 2012, when CT’s Medicaid program shifted from a capitated payment model to a self-insured model based on care coordination, the program has enjoyed significant improvements in quality, access and cost control, as predicted. A new analysis finds that the number of providers participating the in the program is up 32%, person-centered medical homes are up…
Read MoreExchange enrollment growing, but how many were uninsured?
A CT Mirror report looking underneath AccessHealthCT’s enrollment numbers finds that we don’t know how many of the 94,000 people enrollees were previously uninsured. A national study finds that only 11% of exchange enrollees were uninsured; our exchange estimates that rate between 25% and 50%. Even the most generous estimate makes clear that we are…
Read MoreCT Health reform dashboard – progress up to 28.7%
As the ACA’s individual mandate, exchange coverage and dozens of other provisions became effective last month, CT has only achieved 28.7% of necessary benchmarks for effective health care reform, according to this month’s CT Health Reform Dashboard. This is up slightly from 28.3% for the last two months. Uncertainty and a lack of protections in…
Read MoreFebruary CT Health Policy Webquiz – enrollment in CT’s health insurance exchange
Test your knowledge of enrollment in CT’s health insurance exchange. Take the February CT Health Policy Webquiz.
Read MoreAges of CT insurance exchange consumers raising concerns
Board members of Access Health CT are now raising concerns about the age profile of the health insurance exchange’s consumers. Over one third (36%) of people buying insurance there are over age 55, but make up only 12.5% of CT’s total population and 7.7% of the uninsured. In contrast, young adults ages 18 to 34…
Read MoreCT health insurance exchange update – enrollees trend older, Anthem billing problems, and good stories of coverage
Customers trying to buy coverage on Access Health CT, our state’s health insurance exchange, from Anthem are having trouble paying their bill to comply with the Affordable Care Act’s January 1st coverage mandate. Anthem is the most popular choice with 25,000 enrollees so far. Many people have paid their bill but have not been set…
Read MoreNavigators and assisters conference highlights challenges and solutions
Today’s AccessHealthCT conference for outreach workers focused on tools for engaging CT’s uninsured. In addition to public officials and foundation supporters, the conference included helpful wisdom from navigators in the field. Speakers shared real world challenges (technology, coordination, information gaps), but also solutions and best practices (flyers in energy assistance letters and food bank bags,…
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