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The Affordable Care Act's second annual open enrollment period starts Nov. 15 and runs until Feb. 15 -- a three-month window for Americans to shop for and purchase new health coverage, or change their plan through Healthcare.gov or their state-run insurance marketplace.
In this five-minute animated video, the YouToons help consumers understand their health insurance through fun, easy-to-understand explanations and scenarios. This cartoon serves as a tutorial for consumers and organizations. The YouToons previously appeared in the 2010 animated movie, "Health Reform Hits Main Street" and the 2013, "The YouToons Get Ready for Obamacare: Health Insurance Changes Coming Your Way Under the Affordable Care Act."
This brief reviews the new renewal requirements for Medicaid and CHIP that are designed to maintain continuity of coverage for eligible individuals. It provides an overview of state implementation of the new renewal policies and considers the potential role managed care plans can play in supporting renewals. Key findings include: some aspects of the simplified renewal policies have not yet been fully implemented due to a range of challenges; some states, including Washington and Rhode Island, have successfully implemented the new policies and achieved high retention rates with more than nine in ten enrollees successfully renewed; and, managed care plans can support renewals by reminding members to renew and providing direct assistance with the renewal process; however, plans identified challenges to supporting renewal.
The YouToons help consumers understand health insurance by explaining health insurance premiums, out-of-pocket costs, and provider networks. These three videos are excerpts from the 2014 YouToons video, Health Insurance Explained – The YouToons Have It Covered.
In its third year, the survey tracks the experiences of assistance programs signing people up for Affordable Care Act coverage during open enrollment and, for consumers who qualify, during special enrollment periods. This year, for the second time, the survey includes health insurance brokers who helped people apply for non-group coverage in an ACA marketplace.
This brief provides an overview of recent trends in Medicaid and CHIP enrollment as of January 2016, based on data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) produced as part of its Performance Indicator Project. The project was designed to provide timely data on Medicaid and CHIP eligibility and enrollment that are intended to help strengthen data-driven program management and oversight efforts at both the national and state level. They also provide insight into Medicaid and CHIP eligibility and enrollment experiences as the ACA is implemented. This brief examines data as of January 2016 to be able to look at two full years of data post implementation of the major coverage provisions in the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
This September 2014 Visualizing Health Policy Infographic examines the role of private plans, such as HMOs and PPOs, in Medicare. These Medicare Advantage plans offer an alternative to traditional Medicare and provide all benefits covered under Medicare Parts A and B, and often Part D. The infographic includes data on Medicare Advantage penetration across the country. It shows the concentration of enrollment among a small number of firms and affiliates, and displays the extent to which Medicare pays more for Medicare Advantage enrollees than for beneficiaries in fee for service Medicare, on average, and that the payment differential is declining
This brief highlights the experiences of Navigators and other Marketplace consumer assistance programs under the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) in conducting outreach and providing enrollment assistance during the ACA's first open enrollment period. It provides insight into the outreach and enrollment strategies the assisters developed and identifies the keys to successfully overcoming the challenges of the first year. These insights are based on findings from focus groups with assisters in four cities: Miami, Florida; Houston, Texas; Raleigh, North Carolina; and Cleveland, Ohio.
Small and large firms vary substantially on health insurance offer rates and costs. This brief expands on information presented in the 2015 Kaiser/HRET Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Benefits to look exclusively at differences in offer rates, plan costs, and cost sharing between small firms and large firms.
In this brief, we look beneath national trends to examine Medicare Advantage penetration rates and growth rates in counties across the country to assess the extent to which Medicare Advantage plans are poised to cover more beneficiaries than traditional Medicare across the country.
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