Now that I’m actually on the right day ( and it is a snow/too frakking cold to go to school day), here is your Balloon Juice PSA: SIGN UP FOR HEALTH INSURANCE by midnight EST tonight Today is the last day for 45+ states to sign up for coverage that starts January 1, 2017. This …
ZIKA, Medicaid and Risk Adjustment under block grants
And now for something really depressing: The toll that Zika virus takes on pregnancies appears to be even higher than was previously estimated, with a newly updated study from Brazil suggesting that 42 percent of infants infected in the womb may have significant birth defects. When the authors factored in stillbirths and miscarriages suffered by …
ZIKA, Medicaid and Risk Adjustment under block grantsPost + Comments (16)
PSA: Sign-up
Tonight Tomorrow night at midnight is the deadline on Healthcare.gov to sign up for coverage that starts January 1. If you are already in a plan for 2016 and do nothing, you will be auto-assigned to a plan that (hopefully) is similar to what you have now. If you are not covered, get covered tonight. …
HSAs, tax deductions and help for those who don’t need it
Health Savings Accounts (HSA) are going to be a big component of whatever passes as Republican health policy over the next couple of years. An HSA is a tax advantaged savings account that can be used to pay for out of pocket expenses and premiums. They are initiated and contribution eligible when the owner is …
HSAs, tax deductions and help for those who don’t need itPost + Comments (16)
Going where the money is: Essential health benefits
The Republican “Replace” plans make a big blather about reducing the scope of essential health benefits in order to dramatically lower premiums for healthy individuals. Let’s take a look at what is an Essential Health Benefit (EHB) and then do some analysis from there: By law, they are in Section 1302 of the ACA: (1)In …
Going where the money is: Essential health benefitsPost + Comments (26)
Death spirals all around
We’re going to see how the Republican Party can create a death spiral in the individual market in sixty days or less. They have a few choices: First Philip Klein in the Washington Examiner wants to create one the old fashion way: In contrast, Republicans could immediately freeze enrollment — allowing those who already have …
Seema Verma and Medicaid
Seema Verma is the projected next head of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). She is a perfectly plausible nominee with views that I will seldom agree with. She is the consultant that led to Indiana to develop the HIP V.1 health savings account based Medicaid build-out that was tweaked to become HIP …