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Strategies to Extend Coverage to Uninsured

Absent a comprehensive initiative to achieve quality and affordable health care for all, there are a number of steps progressive leaders can take to extend coverage to the uninsured and make coverage for the currently insured more affordable.

Extending coverage to all Americans is an economic as well as a moral issue, as the costs associated with being uninsured are not borne by the uninsured alone. In 2005, Families USA showed that unpaid care for the uninsured resulted in an average cost-shift of $922 to family insurance premiums. Families USA, at the time, projected these costs to increase to $1,502 by 2010.

This section discusses many of the leading options states have to extend coverage to working families.

From the Dispatch

Federal Health Law Helping Cash-Strapped States -- And Right-wing State Leaders Lining up to Benefit

Sep 09, 2010

While the right wing continues their rhetoric to repeal, many of the same states calling loudly in both legislatures and courts for the law's rejection are simultaneously preparing to implement it and benefiting from the opportunities the health care overhaul provides them. In fact, a Department of Health and Human Services release revealed that, of the 20 states who have joined the constitutionally dubious multi-state lawsuit seeking to overturn the health care law, eight of them - Arizona, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska, Nevada, and Washington - were claiming subsidies for retired state government employees provided by the very law their states are arguing should be thrown out by the courts.

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Project to Get Veterans VA Benefits Expands Access, Saves Millions of State Medicaid Dollars

Jul 08, 2010

Based on an innovative model from Washington state, states have the opportunity to help veterans improve their benefits and save millions of dollars for their own budgets.
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Preventing Loss of Medicaid Drug Rebate Funds for States

Jul 01, 2010

While the new Affordable Health Care law provides a variety of funding opportunities for states, one provision in the health law that could shift billions of dollars from cash-strapped states to the federal government. Under the National Medicaid Drug Rebate Program created by the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990, drug manufacturers are required to enter into agreements that provide rebates for Medicaid purchased drugs, establishing a 15% minimum level of rebates. Up until now, the rebates were divided between the states and the federal government. But under the new health reform law, a significant portion of the rebates will go solely to Washington beginning this year.
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Federal Health Reform Benefits for Early Retirees Begins on June 1st

May 27, 2010

One of the immediate benefits of the Affordable Care Act is the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program. Beginning June 1, 2010, this new reinsurance reimbursement program is available to group health plan sponsors who provide medical coverage to early retirees and their spouses, surviving spouses and dependents.
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