Friday, October 1
Tropicana
2831 Boardwalk
Atlantic City, NJ
Health Care Reform
Announcing HealthCare.gov
July 8, 2010
New Jersey Citizen Action Education Fund and NJ for Health Care’s Health Care Implementation Conference earlier this month was a huge success! Take a look at some of the presented materials to get a better sense of what national health care reform will mean for New Jersey.
Summary of the National Health Care Reform Law
What National Health Care Reform Means for New Jersey
Quick Wins: Who Will Be Helped Right Away By the New Health Care Reform Law?
National Health Care Reform: What does it mean for New Jersey, and what comes next?
July 1, 2010
This “first-of-its-kind” website is simple and easy to use, and provides one-stop shopping access to a wealth of information, including your new consumer rights and benefits under the Affordable Care Act, a timeline of when new programs under the new law will come online between now and 2014 and a new insurance finder that will make it easy to find both private and public health insurance option that works for you. Read More
How Health Reform Saves Consumers and Taxpayers Money: The Affordable Care Act Lowers Costs and Improves Quality
June 29, 2010
Health reform’s three major goals—insurance reform, affordable coverage, and slower cost growth—are all critical. But controlling costs is key to achieving the other two. Insurance that offers meaningful protection and is affordable to most, if not all, Americans, across the income scale, hinges on getting ever-rising health costs under control. Read More
Transforming Health Care Delivery in NJ: What’s Next
June 11, 2010
“Making it Work for New Jersey: A Statewide Health Care Reform Implementation Conference” brought together 150 representatives of labor, community, health experts, physicians and other healthcare workers to focus on how to coordinate our efforts to make sure that we implement the key components of national health care reform to work for us – not the insurance companies.
Sponsored by NJ Citizen Action and the Consumer Voices for Coverage, the conference included presentations explaining both the immediate gains New Jerseyans will see from the recently passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, including:
- Family Coverage to include adult children up to age 26 on parents’ health plan, with fewer restrictions than NJ’s law, and without additional premium;
- Funding for NJ to establish a “high risk pool for those with chronic health conditions;
- An end to lifetime caps and the practice of discriminating against high-risk individuals;
- Immediate $250 benefit to seniors to help close the ‘donut hole’ that resulted in higher prescription drug costs, and long-term lowering of prescription drug costs for 227,000 seniors in New Jersey
And by 2014, health care reform will benefit NJ by:
- Expanding Medicaid eligibility to cover 25% of New Jersey’s uninsured
- Establishing insurance ‘exchanges’ to help small businesses and individuals find insurance plans that must meet comprehensive standards for coverage and care;
- Providing subsidies to lower health care costs for 33% of New Jersey’s uninsured (and for hundreds of thousands of those who already have coverage)
- Helping 106,500 small businesses in New Jersey afford insurance for their workers
The conference also reviewed lesser-known elements of national health reform, including:
- Funding for Pilot programs that would change how care is delivered – with an emphasis on community-based care and coordination of care, especially for those with chronic diseases, disability, and on subsidized programs such as Medicaid. A number of physician groups are establishing ‘accountable care organizations’ to provide more comprehensive care to their patients; and disability groups are working on ‘medical homes’ projects to provide better coordination and continuum of care.
- Funding to address disparities in health care, focused on urban areas and high-risk populations.
- A requirement that hospitals conduct community needs assessments.
How these programs are implemented will matter to HPAE members – as providers and consumers. HPAE intends to be involved in advocating for regulations and laws at the NJ level which will assure quality of care, continued support for our hospitals, and methods that provide the right level of care in the right setting for our patients.
May 10, 2010
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was finally passed - providing quality affordable healthcare to millions more Americans. But what will it actually look like in New Jersey? What role, if any, can we as health care professionals play in making this new law work for New Jerseyans?
The conference will provide important information and opportunities for discussion on the following:
- The timeline for state and federal implementation
- Critical reform decisions for New Jersey
- Key provisions and opportunities to advocate for your clients, members and constituents
- Opportunities to advance Health Care Cost and Quality Initiatives
- How Health Reform can address Health Disparities
- Effective Health Reform Messaging
- Continuing to Build a Health Reform Movement
Sign up & view the agenda here.
May 05, 2010
In March 2010, Congress enacted substantial health reform measures intended to increase access to affordable insurance, reduce the number of uninsured people, and reform both the health insurance market and the health care delivery system. The lion’s share of these reforms will take effect in 2014. However, some reforms go into effect well before that time. This brief summarizes and provides context for key immediate reforms to the private health insurance market that will take effect in 2010 and 2011. Read More
April 06, 2010
On behalf of New Jersey Citizen Action and the NJ for Health Care Coalition we are writing to urge you not to pursue legal, legislative or other challenges intended to thwart implementation of the recently passed federal health care reform. Our Coalition, representing more than 2 million residents, supports this historic reform effort and believes it will significantly and positively address the health care crisis in New Jersey. While not a perfect piece of legislation, there is much in the reform package that will greatly benefit New Jersey’s taxpayers, uninsured and insured residents, small business owners, women, children and senior citizens.
Click here to continue reading about how the new legislation will help residents of NJ.
April 01, 2010
New Jersey Benefits More Than Most From the New Health Reform Law
Health reform is now the law of the land. New Jersey is set to benefit significantly from these reforms because of the state’s larger population, high rate of uninsured people and its high cost health insurance. These facts are particularly important given that Gov. Christie has said he is considering the possibility of joining a lawsuit with 13 other states to challenge the new law. Click here to read 8 reasons why NJ will benefit from the new health care law
March 29, 2010
Changes to Health Care Law Passed
Immediately following the passage of national health care reform, a number of amendments that improved on the legislation also passed the Senate, with no Republican votes.
Here’s how the Reconciliation Bill Improves on The Patient Protection Act:
Click here to see how much federal money each state will receive.
Some NJ Congressional members stood out in their successful effort at passing health care reform – in particular Frank Pallone (D-6) chairman of the crucial subcommittee that shaped the legislation, as well as Robert E. Andrews (D-1); Rush Holt (D-12); Bill Pascrell Jr.(D-8); Donald M. Payne (D-10); Steven R. Rothman (D-9); Albio Sires (D-13) and Senators Lautenberg and Menendez.
March 23, 2010
What Will The New Law Do for Me?
The passage of real national health care reform is a giant step in our country’s history. For working families and our unions, it was also an excellent victory. Along with our community and labor allies in HealthCare for America Now, and the AFL-CIO, HPAE members have spent countless hours working hard to fight for the rights of our families and our patients to have access to affordable health care.
What did we actually win?
How will the changes affect the nation?
How will the changes affect you?
The Patient Protection Act (name of bill)
• Provides healthcare coverage for additional 32 million people, or 95 percent of our nation’s population. In NJ alone, about 859,000 more of our 1.2 million uninsured will have health care coverage by 2019.
• Allows adult children up to 26 years-of-age to remain on their parent’s health insurance plan.
• Prohibits insurance companies from denying coverage or imposing higher rates due to pre-existing conditions and outlaws dropping coverage when someone requires expensive treatment. In other words – insurance companies have to cover us when we are sick.
• Makes health insurance more affordable, subsidizing individuals earning up to $43,320 or families of four up to $88,200 when they purchase insurance coverage.
• Establishes a procedure to review insurance premium increases and take action against unreasonable rate hikes.
• Lowers prescription drug costs for seniors (closes the donut hole) and provides for financial stability for the Medicare program.
• Establishes an ‘insurance exchange’ similar to what Congress has, so you can purchase the best plan for your needs.
• Pays for the plan through a combination of taxes on higher income wage-earners and an ‘excise’ tax on high-cost plans.
Some of these provisions are almost immediate, some phased in between 2011 and 2018.
Click here to see how the new law will affect your district
Click here to see how health care reform will affect you as an individual
Click here to see how health care reform will affect the state of New Jersey
March 22, 2010
Health Care Reform Is Passed With Help From Union Members
Thanks to HPAE members and other union activists, Sunday, March 21st, 2010 will be remembered as the victorious end to a very long, drawn out fight for health care reform. The House of Representatives voted (219-212) in favor of legislation passed by the Senate in December 2009. Click here to see how NJ Representatives voted
The House also passed a set of “fixes” to the Senate legislation, which are included in a “reconciliation” bill. This bill will now be sent to the Senate for it approval.
Union members played a key role in this victory. We made 4 million phone calls and sent over 1 million emails to lawmakers. HPAE members were an important part of these numbers – it is because of our hard work that we can say, along with Richard Trumka, President of the AFL-CIO, that we’ve finally taken a “momentous step toward comprehensive health care.” To see what else President Trumka had to say about the reforms, view his remarks here
Specifically, the bill:
• covers an additional 32 million people, or 95 percent of the population
• bans coverage denials or higher rates due to pre-existing conditions
• outlaws dropping coverage when someone requires expensive treatment
• establishes a procedure to review insurance premium increases and take action against unreasonable rate hikes.
However, our hard work is not yet over.
The reconciliation bill includes many labor-supported changes to the current legislation. Some of those changes include: modification of the taxes used to provide health insurance to the uninsured, including the so-called “excise” tax on more expensive insurance plans; more subsidies for uninsured working families; and an end to the “donut hole” in the Medicare prescription drug program. Stay tuned throughout this week to see how you can get involved.
Estimated Impact of Health Reform Bills Passed in the House and Senate on New Jersey
Click here to view a side by side comparison of the Senate and House heath care reform bills.
HCAN Update
NJ For Health Care, Horizon Watch, and HCAN Partners and Allies,
Today Senator Menendez joined 20 of his Senate colleagues (including Senator Lautenberg) and signed onto a letter asking Harry Reid to pass health care reform using reconciliation and to have a vote on the public health insurance option. Click here to read the letter.
Also this morning, President Obama released his health care reform proposal that incorporates the work the House and the Senate have done and adds additional ideas. Here are some highlights as outlined in an article by Jonathan Cohn in the New Republic:
- Affordability: The House bill offered more assistance to low-income people buying coverage through the insurance exchanges. Obama is proposing to improve the Senate's financial assistance, so that it more closely approximates the House's numbers.
- The Donut Hole: Relative to the Senate bill, the House bill offered more prescription drug relief for seniors, filling in more of the "donut hole" in Medicare Part D coverage. Obama would like the final bill to do the same as the House bill.
- Medicare Advantage Plans: The Medicare program famously pays private insurers serving beneficiaries too much money, at least in eyes of most experts. The Senate bill sought to reduce those payments, but the House bill sought to reduce them more. Obama would move the number closer to the House's.
- Consumer Protections: In general, the House bill applied consumer protections to all insurance plans, while the Senate bill left many of them exempt. Obama would like the final reform bill to use the House model.
Importantly, Obama’s plan includes better oversight and accountability to protect consumers from insurance company rate increases. Click here to read more including Obama’s full proposal.
Save the Date – HCAN Action on AHIP in DC March 9th.
Health Care Bill Clears
On Monday morning (December 20th, 2009), the Senate health care bill cleared its last big hurdle, putting it on track to pass on Thursday (Christmas Eve). In the roll call, Democrats got to 60 by combining the 58 members of their party with Joe Lieberman and Bernie Sanders, the two independents who caucus with the Democratic Party, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, the Republican moderates most likely to join voices with the Democrats, voted against ending the filibuster on the bill.
Unfortunately, the Senate bill is badly weakened having no public option and doesn't do enough to make insurance affordable or create any real competition for insurance companies. The House bill is much better and as the two bills get merged, we need for Congress to insist on real improvements before agreeing to vote for the final bill. We will be working with our partners meeting with Champions in the House to tell them we they need to make critical changes to the bill in conference committee.
Click on the links below for recent news coverage, including an OpEd published in the New Republic by Jacob Hacker, whom some might call the godfather of the public option and who believes the national bill is still worth fighting for.
Why I Still Believe in This Bill
December 20, 2009
By Jacob S. Hacker
Other Articles
Public Plan Perversion
You Call This a Compromise?
Are you registered to vote? Click here to register!