Indiana Adds Work Requirement To Medicaid, Will Block Coverage If Paperwork Is Late
PHIL GALEWITZ
Indiana on Friday became the second state to win federal approval to add a work requirement for adult Medicaid recipients who gained coverage under the Affordable Care Act. A less debated provision in the state's new plan could lead to tens of thousands of people losing coverage if they fail to complete paperwork documenting their eligibility for the program.
The federal approval was announced by Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar in Indianapolis.
Medicaid participants who fail to promptly submit paperwork showing they still qualify for the program will be locked out of enrollment for three months, according to updated rules.
At this point, the only significant top-line 2018 Open Enrollment numbers missing are the final 10 days out of California (which could add perhaps 40,000 to the total) and a solid month of enrollment from the District of Columbia (23 days, actually, but they extended their deadline by 5 extra days, which may or may not be included in the final, official report from CMS). DC's tally through 1/08 was 21,352 QHP selections. Their all-time high was around 22,700 set in 2016, so I can't imagine that they added more than perhaps 2,000 more since 1/08. In other words, about 99.5% of the 2018 OEP QHP selections have likely been accounted for.
That means it's time to move on to...breaking down the demographic data! Woo-hoo! Parrrr-tyyyy!!
The big, official CMS report from the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) presumably won't be released for a couple of weeks, but some of the state-based exchanges are faster about posting their demographics. First up: Connecticut!
OK, this may seem kind of silly; data that I've compiled has been cited/quoted by any number of publications, news stories, healthcare wonks and so forth over the past 4+ years, so I suppose this really shouldn't be that big of a deal to me.
This Just In, courtesy of Dan Goldberg of Politico New York...
.@charles_gabaNY releases final numbers --253,102 in QHP with 41% receiving NO financial assistance. (That's amazing!) 738,851 in Essential Plan 374,577 in Child Health Plus
Last year, after 7 years of doing everything in their power to undermine, sabotage and weaken the ACA, Congressional Republicans tried every which way they could to repeal the law. They tried passing AHCA , B-CRAP, ORRA, Graham-Cassidy and a few other variants along the way to no avail.
Finally, in late December, desperate for a win on "repealing Obamacare"--any type of win--they said "screw it" and just repealed the ACA's individual mandate all by itself. They didn't replace it with a reasonable inducement for people to get covered, mind you, against the advice of actuarial expert advice, mind you; they just...got rid of it.
The vote to repeal the mandate penalty was incredibly short-sighted and will almost certainly lead to negative consequences when it actually goes into effect (which won't be until next year, causing much confusion until then, but that's a different discussion)...but at least it's legal.
Nothing new or noteworthy here, but I've posted the "last call" press releases for California and DC, so I figured with just 8 hours left to go I should do so for New York as well:
ALBANY, N.Y. (January 24, 2018) – NY State of Health, the state’s official health plan Marketplace today announced that New Yorkers who have not yet signed up for coverage in a Qualified Health Plan (QHP) should enroll now so they are covered for 2018. Open Enrollment ends January 31st. Consumers across the state have a choice of multiple health plan options and for many, coverage is more affordable than last year.
Enrollment through NY State of Health continues to climb to record levels with more than 4.2 million enrolled across all programs. As of January 16, 2018, 243,600 consumers have enrolled in a Qualified Health Plan (QHP) and 726,300 have signed up for the Essential Plan, exceeding numbers at the end of open enrollment in 2017.
Final Day of Open Enrollment! Covered California Will Help Consumers Who Get Caught Up in Surge of Last-Minute Shoppers
Covered California’s open-enrollment period ends at midnight tonight.
Due to an expected increase in demand today, consumers who start an application before midnight will be able to work with a certified enroller to complete the process on Thursday or Friday.
Covered California Service Center representatives are available to help through midnight on the 31st and through 8 p.m. on Feb. 1 and 2.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — On the final day of open enrollment, with tens of thousands of people expected to sign up for health coverage, Covered California announced it would help consumers “cross the finish line” if they get caught up in the surge of last-minute shoppers.
Huh. Deadline extensions were fairly common in the first couple of years of Open Enrollment, but have mostly been phased out more recently. This is a bit unexpected from the DC Health Link:
.@MayorBowser has extended the deadline for individuals & families to enroll in quality affordable health insurance to Monday, February 5th at 11:59 pm. Take advantage of today's extended hours at enrollment centers across the city. Don't delay #GetCoveredDCpic.twitter.com/8R7zq0EzA1
We eliminated an especially cruel tax that fell mostly on Americans making less than $50,000 a year — forcing them to pay tremendous penalties simply because they could not afford government-ordered health plans. We repealed the core of disastrous Obamacare — the individual mandate is now gone.
I'm not going to go try and explain yet again why the ACA's Individual Mandate was included in the law in the first place or why repealing it is such a bad idea; I've embedded my video explainer above to do that.
If you've been following this site for awhile, you know that for the 2018 Open Enrollment Period, I sort of partnered up with two grassroots healthcare advocacy groups: ACA Consumer Advocacy and the Indivisible ACA Signup Project. We created and disseminated a whole mess of blue-themed Open Enrollment infographics, in both English and Spanish, for all 50 states and the District of Columbia via our websites, social media and even in print via downloadable PDF versions distributed across various public locations.
Anyway, with Open Enrollment officially wrapping up in the final 3 states (well, 2 states + DC) on Wednesday, Jan. 31st, they shared a few metrics, which I'm proud to repost here as well:
Thread: So, about those blue images. We partnered with @2018ACASignup to try to help offset #ACASabotage around enrollment. Kinda impressed with how the whole thing worked. Here are some numbers:
