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Health Insurance Coverage Two-Page Briefs

How Are States Building the Technology to Support Health Care Reform?

How Are States Building the Technology to Support Health Care Reform?

To successfully implement health reform, states will need to develop information technology (IT) systems that securely provide consumers with answers about their eligibility for public health insurance benefits or tax subsidies, and enhance their ability to enroll in health insurance coverage.

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Health Insurance Coverage Two-Page Briefs

Should States Integrate Health Insurance Exchanges and Medicaid?

Should States Integrate Health Insurance Exchanges and Medicaid?

By fully integrating Medicaid with their health insurance exchanges, states can reap numerous cost efficiencies in administration, enrollment strategies, consumer outreach and infrastructure.

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Health Insurance Coverage Two-Page Briefs

What Can Help States Create Health Insurance Exchanges?

What Can Help States Create Health Insurance Exchanges?

A major component of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is the creation of state-based health insurance exchanges—online marketplaces where consumers and businesses can compare and purchase coverage.

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Health Insurance Coverage Two-Page Briefs

What is the Link Between Having Health Insurance and Enjoying Better Health and Finances?

What is the Link Between Having Health Insurance and Enjoying Better Health and Finances?

The Oregon Health Insurance Experiment showed that having health insurance profoundly affects an individual's health and well-being.

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Health Insurance Coverage Two-Page Briefs

What are the Effects of the Individual Mandate?

What are the Effects of the Individual Mandate?

The individual mandate is an integral but controversial part of the health insurance reforms under the Affordable Care Act.

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Health Insurance Coverage Two-Page Briefs

What are the Recent Trends for Children's Participation in Medicaid and CHIP?

What are the Recent Trends for Children's Participation in Medicaid and CHIP?

In 2009, 4.3 million children remained uninsured despite being eligible for health insurance through Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), down from 4.7 million in 2008.

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Health Insurance Coverage Two-Page Briefs

What Proven Strategies Help Maximize Enrollment in Public Health Insurance Programs?

What Proven Strategies Help Maximize Enrollment in Public Health Insurance Programs?

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) will make insurance coverage available to an estimated 30 million additional people, largely through expansions in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

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Health Insurance Coverage Two-Page Briefs

What Consumer Protections are Embedded in the ACA?

What Consumer Protections are Embedded in the ACA?

Consumer protections and market reforms designed to end certain insurer practices and address barriers to health care coverage, quality and access are central to the Affordable Care Act, which became law on March 23, 2010. Many of these protections already apply. Others will be rolled out by 2014.

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View All Health Insurance Coverage Two-Page Briefs

The Issue

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, nearly 51 million Americans, including 7 million children, are uninsured. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) will expand health coverage to more than 30 million of these uninsured Americans, but this potential will only be realized through comprehensive and effective implementation of its many coverage-related provisions.

Why This Matters

  • Uninsured people live sicker and die sooner than others. An estimated 18,000 - 22,000 Americans die each year because they don't have health coverage.
  • Many of the key provisions of the law leave it up to state leaders to determine how provisions will be implemented. As a result these leaders will decide how effective the new law will be in providing Americans with access to comprehensive, affordable coverage. As part of the implementation process state and federal policymakers will continue to make key decisions that will affect how many Americans have health insurance.
  • Nearly 5 million children who are uninsured are eligible for Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). These children do not need to wait until ACA is implemented to get covered, and there are efforts under way right now to make sure they get insured.

Policy Context

In addition to providing health coverage to more than 30 million previously uninsured Americans, the ACA introduces major changes to the insurance market, beginning in 2014. Insurers will no longer be able to discriminate based on health status or gender, cap benefits or rescind coverage retroactively.

Health Insurance Coverage Fast Facts

No More Denial of Health Coverage

Because of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Americans will no longer be denied health coverage because of a preexisting condition and will have access to insurance when they need it most, without lifetime and annual benefit limits.

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Jobs Don't Guarantee Coverage

More than three-quarters (77 percent) of the uninsured are in working families.

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Extending the Cure

Working to reduce drug-resistant infections by recognizing that antibiotics are a natural resource and developing new solutions.

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Blog Posts

Scholars Pose Endgame Strategies for Tobacco Use

Do we need an endgame strategy to finally end the devastating hold tobacco has on its users? Scholars, scientists and policy experts grapple...

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Blog Posts

New Data Reveals High Death Rates From Clostridium Difficile (C. diff)

A new report issued by the CDC shows rates of infection with C. diff are at historic highs and must be curtailed.

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Blog Posts

Paid Sick Leave: How Laws Can Impact Health

40% of private U.S. employees don't get paid sick leave. As some cities are making moves toward paid sick leave laws, some state-level legis...

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Blog Posts

CRE Bacteria: The Next Superbug Threat in Your Hospital

Dr. Daniel J. Morgan, a physician and researcher for Extending the Cure, tells us what it’s like to face superbugs in the health care system...

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Blog Posts

After Growing Up Without Health Insurance, "Relieved" by the Supreme Court Health Reform Ruling

The day I received my college health insurance card in the mail, that flimsy piece of laminated paper with my name on it, I vividly remember...

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Blog Posts

Primary Care and Population Health: Last in a Five-Part Series

The New York Academy recently conducted a survey of 17 thought leaders in primary care and population health. In the final of five blog post...

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Blog Posts

Public Health News Roundup: April 29

In today's public health news: Past Decade's Poor Economy Drove Health Declines; What Influences Kids to Smoke (Or Not) Changes Over Time; a...

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Blog Posts

Physical Activity is Essential

Therefore, a main priority of action for 2012 should be for physical activity to play a more central role in the policy discourse. As work h...

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Feature

TEDMED 2013

RWJF is a proud supporter of TEDMED's 20 Great Challenges of Health and Medicine and several of the innovative thinkers who have shared thei...

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Blog Posts

Primary Care and Population Health: Third in a Five-Part Series

The New York Academy recently conducted a survey of 17 thought leaders in primary care and population health. In the third of five blog post...

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Blog Posts

Twelve-Year-Olds Teaching Health Policy

Peter Ubel conducts an unscripted interview with his twelve-year-old son to see how easily a middle schooler can understand the rationale fo...

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