Health Reform
CBO estimates that 22 million more Americans will become uninsured by 2026 under the Senate’s ACA replacement proposal
Thursday morning Senate leaders published their plan to replace the Affordable Care Act and modified it earlier today. The Senate proposal closely follows the bill that passed the House in May. According to today’s Congressional Budget Office’s report, the Senate bill would increase the number of uninsured Americans by 15 million next year and…
Read MoreReport estimates AHCA would cut $5.9 billion in Medicaid funds to CT
Connecticut would lose $5.9 billion in Medicaid funding from 2019 to 2028 under the American Health Care Act passed by the House last month, according to a new report from the Urban Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Connecticut would likely not be in a position to fill that funding gap with state funds.…
Read MoreCBO estimates that AHCA would cause 23 million more uninsured in ten years
In more federal health news, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released their analysis of the impact of the House’s American Health Care Act yesterday. CBO predicts that 23 million more Americans would lose health coverage in the next decade, 14 million just next year, if the AHCA becomes law. The law would reduce the federal…
Read MoreRegional state policymakers urge Congress to preserve successful state-federal Medicaid partnership
Yesterday, the Council of State Governments’ Eastern Regional Conference (CSG/ERC) sent a letter calling on Congressional leaders to protect and support the 50-year, successful state-federal Medicaid partnership. CSG/ERC is comprised of state policymaker members from eleven Northeastern states from Maine to Maryland as well as the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and five eastern Canadian…
Read MoreStudy raises concerns about ACO “savings” and gaming the system
A new study published in Health Affairs raises doubts about the effectiveness of Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) to both improve the quality of American health care while controlling costs. The study found very high physician turnover rates at a large Medicare ACO and that high cost patients were concentrated among a small minority of…
Read MoreLatest ACA replacement expected to cost CT up to $1 billion/year and increase premiums for residents
An analysis by CT’s Office of Policy and Management estimates that the House Republicans’ American Health Care Act (AHCA) would severely stress the state’s budget far into the future. Extra costs would start at $6.8 million next fiscal year and rise to $1 billion after 2020 when fully implemented. Policymakers are now trying to fill…
Read MoreNew report finds adults in Medicaid expansion states like CT have better access to care, fewer financial barriers
A new report from the CDC provides the first analysis of the population-based impact of the Affordable Care Act. The analysis used data from the 2014 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, a state-based ongoing survey of adult Americans about health risk behaviors, chronic conditions, health care access and use of preventive care. As for previous…
Read MoreCSG, ERC pass resolutions to preserve Medicaid state-federal partnership
At our meetings in Virginia last week, both the Nationaland Eastern Region Council of State Governments passed resolutions urging federal policymakers to support and continue the successful Medicaid state-federal partnership and “avoid the imposition of new burdens on state budgets.” The resolutions are in response to signals from the incoming federal administration and Congress to…
Read MoreReform is hard and Econ 101 doesn’t work
An article published today in the New England Journal of Medicine highlights the challenges in health reform and why the usual, simple fixes aren’t working. The article by Richard Bohmer, The Hard Work of Health Care Transformation, explains why changing financial incentives or governance structures aren’t sufficient to effect change. The status quo is very…
Read MoreState policymakers hear about successes and challenges in Medicaid reform
Wednesday’s Medicaid Reform meeting hosted by CSG-ERC Health Policy Committeehighlighted the variety of approaches states are taking to address their unique challenges. All states are committed to move away from volume-based payment models toward building value. All states were also committed, and have devoted significant resources, to quality improvement and delivery reform to build programs…
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