newsbusters gimbus really upset that Psaki points out that every Republican voted against additional police funding. Gimbus cleanup on aisle 9! https://t.co/7whxlhk5xE
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) June 28, 2021
This post is in: Biden Administration in Action, How about that weather?, Open Threads
newsbusters gimbus really upset that Psaki points out that every Republican voted against additional police funding. Gimbus cleanup on aisle 9! https://t.co/7whxlhk5xE
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) June 28, 2021
This post is in: Anderson On Health Insurance
Last night, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released their proposed rule for the 2022 ACA playbook. One of the significant rule changes that CMS wants to make is to extend the Open Enrollment Period (OEP) to 2.5 months. Currently, OEP is from November 1 to December 15 for any state that uses Healthcare.gov. State based marketplaces (SBMs) can do whatever they wish. CMS wants to extend the OEP for Healthcare.gov from November 1 to January 15.
Open Enrollment Period Extension (§ 155.410(e))
We propose to amend paragraph (e) of § 155.410, which provides the dates for the annual Exchange open enrollment period in which qualified individuals and enrollees may apply for or change coverage in a QHP. The Exchange open enrollment period is extended by cross-reference to non-grandfathered plans in the individual market, both inside and outside of an Exchange, under guaranteed availability regulations at § 147.104(b)(1)(ii). HHS is specifically proposing to alter the open enrollment period for the 2022 coverage year and beyond so that it begins on November 1 and runs through January 15 of the applicable benefit year.
I’ll be engaging in active citizenship by commenting on this rule before the comment period closes out on July 28, 2021.
I am supportive of this change. Dr. Coleman Drake and I wrote in a Health Affairs blog in February 2021 that an extended OEP is valuable:
The Biden administration could decrease the administrative burden of Marketplace enrollment by extending Healthcare.gov’s open enrollment period into January, so that it ends on January 15, 2022, rather than December 15, 2021. As we explain below, such an extended open enrollment period would likely increase the number of individuals with health insurance coverage by allowing greater flexibility in signing up for coverage.
Currently, enrolling in a Marketplace plan in the federally facilitated Marketplace is a two-step process. Families must first choose a plan. They must then make their first premium payment to their insurer by January 1. The household’s policy is activated only after their insurer receives this payment. If payment is not received by January 1, the household remains uninsured….
The opportunity to obtain coverage after missing the January 1 payment deadline matters. In our research on Colorado’s Marketplace with Sih-Ting Cai and Daniel W. Sacks, we found that households enrolled in zero-premium plans were covered, on average, for 50 more days than those that were not. This increase was entirely due to households that enrolled in zero-premium plans being more likely to start coverage on January 1. This effect was even larger among lower-income households, who likely have greater difficulty making their first payment on time due to a lack of access to checking accounts. By offering an extended open enrollment period, states such as Colorado have allowed households who miss the January 1 payment deadline with an opportunity to become insured on February 1 rather than remaining uninsured for the entire year.
Extending the open enrollment period into January also makes signing up for coverage easier from a practical standpoint. Katherine Swartz and John Graves found that families often experience more financial insecurity and have less mental energy to devote to purchasing health insurance in the last two weeks of the calendar year, likely due to the holidays. Simply allowing families the opportunity to purchase insurance at a less demanding time of year could thus help to reduce the number of uninsured.
Extending OEP through January will allow people to catch errors and mistakes that they made in December which otherwise would have kept them from activating coverage for January 1, 2022. The OEP extension does have a trade-off. Some people will be paying premiums that were priced on the basis of twelve months of claims for an eleven month contract. They will experience a modest decrease in effective actuarial value.
I think there will be a second benefit in the form of people being able to get out of dominated defaults more easily. Currently, automatic re-enrollment is activated immediately after the open enrollment period is over. At this point, on Healthcare.gov, people who are automatically renewed will be very sticky to their plan even if they really don’t want it and realize that they don’t want it when they see the actual premium that they owe. An extended OEP allows for the default to create a moment of attention where people can first say “Oh Shit” as they currently may, and then, they may modify their choices.
This post is in: COVID-19 Coronavirus, Foreign Affairs
The US reported +93 new coronavirus deaths yesterday, bringing the total to 619,424. Several states did not report. The 7-day moving average declined to 292 deaths per day, its lowest level since March 27, 2020. pic.twitter.com/87Jft3edLZ
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) June 28, 2021
COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Monday / Tuesday, June 28-29Post + Comments (62)
by WaterGirl| 14 Comments
This post is in: On The Road, Photo Blogging
We have another first-time submitter this morning for On the Road. Welcome, Mawado. This is how I picture an enchanted forest!
In the 1960’s, Castle & Cooke (yep, the Dole Pineapple folks) formed Oceanic Properties. The goal was to develop the Rancho del Mar sheep ranch situated in northern Sonoma County, California. The property extends 10 miles along the Pacific ocean.
They assembled a team of soon-to-be heavy hitters to create the place: Lawrence Halprin, landscape architect; Charles Moore, Joseph Esherick, William Turnbull Jr., Donlyn Lyndon, Richard Whitaker, architects. Together, they built Sea Ranch.
The design book for it’s distinctive architecture is simple, timber-framed buildings. Most of the buildings are clad in rough redwood siding or shingles. Some are stained muted earth tones. They often appear to be upscale, modernist takes on agricultural buildings.
Exterior lights are baffled to reduce light pollution at night, and there are no streetlights.
Many of the houses now are short term rentals.
On The Road – Mawado – Sea Ranch, CaliforniaPost + Comments (14)
The ranchers and shepherds of the nineteenth century planted rows of Monterey Cyprus (Hesperocyparis macrocarpa) as wind breaks. They have grown into impressive, if a bit eerie, corridors.
by John Cole| 87 Comments
This post is in: Absent Friends, Readership Capture
I just wanted to say thank you all to everyone for your kind words for me and Tamara. More for her, though, because it was so sudden, whereas mine was a long time coming. I really wish she loved smaller dogs and did not have to go through this heartbreak so often. Those big guys are just such lovable lugs, but that much love is hard to haul around and they don’t last as long.
Again, thank you.
And for you lurkers, stop being strangers.
by WaterGirl| 14 Comments
This post is in: On The Road, On The Road After Dark, Paris After Dark, Photo Blogging
My sweetie and I visited Paris in December of 2018 and had a little 3rd floor flat a block from the Pantheon and the Sorbonne. It’s a great time to visit, uncrowded and relaxed, and the weather was only slightly colder than San Francisco. This is eight photos out of hundreds. I hope you enjoy.
On The Road – Tom V – Paris in DecemberPost + Comments (14)
It’s Paris! You have to have a picture of the Tour Eiffel!
This post is in: Excellent Links, GOP Death Cult, Gun nuts, Open Threads, local races
jesus take the wheel https://t.co/HsDly252hH
— kilgore trout, dna harvester (@KT_So_It_Goes) June 27, 2021
(Cawthorn, incidentally, failed to show up.)
this paragraph is some real art https://t.co/MCuTzTnKmg pic.twitter.com/0rawRCczZz
— kilgore trout, dna harvester (@KT_So_It_Goes) June 28, 2021
Golden prose: Daniel Hill, for the Riverfront Times, ‘Inside Gun-Surrendering Criminal Mark McCloskey’s Very Sad St. Louis Rally’: