Health Reform

Van de Water Testimony: Health Reform’s Health Insurance Tax

The health insurance tax forms part of a carefully thought-out structure to expand health insurance coverage and slow the growth of health care costs without adding to the budget deficit. Any effort to modify or repeal this tax must not undercut any of these critical objectives.

Medicaid Expansion:
A Good Deal for States

Expanding Medicaid will add very little to what states would have spent on Medicaid without health reform.

It will reduce state and local government costs for uncompensated care and other services they provide to the uninsured, which will offset at least some — and in a number of states, possibly all or more than all — of the modest increase in state Medicaid costs.

Resources for Advocates

Health Reform's Medicaid Expansion: A Toolkit for Advocates

Over the coming months, most states will be considering whether to expand Medicaid. State advocates can play a critical role in these discussions by making the case that the expansion is a good deal for states. This toolkit brings together resources to help advocates analyze projections of the fiscal impact of the Medicaid expansion for their states, as well as additional materials to help make the case for expanding Medicaid. View the toolkit

Coordinating Human Services Programs with Health Reform Implementation

Careful consideration of how states will address and leverage applicants' or participants' connection to other benefits and services as a part of their health reform implementation efforts could help to yield better outcomes for families and efficiencies for state administration.

Each module of this toolkit provides states with tools and suggestions for a guided process that can be used to review the current eligibility and enrollment service delivery model and compare the current model to the desired future model. View the toolkit

Additional resources:

Health insurances exchanges

State Policy Decisions in Exchange Implementation

Status of State Health Insurance Exchange Implementation

States Should Structure Insurance Exchanges to Minimize Adverse Selection

Making Health Care More Affordable: The New Premium and Cost-Sharing Credits

Medicaid

Explaining Health Reform: The New Rules for Determining Income Under Medicaid in 2014

No Need to Wait Until 2014: States Can Cover Low-Income Adults in Medicaid Now

Holding the Line on Medicaid and CHIP: Key Questions and Answers About Health Care Reform's Maintenance-of-Effort Requirements

Medicaid and the Uninsured: Online Applications for Medicaid and/or CHIP

Other topics

State Considerations on Adopting Health Reform's "Basic Health" Option

Understanding Health Reform's Waivers for State Innovation

Employer Responsibility in Health Reform