Affordable Care Act Resources
NEW Resources
Health Care Reform and Programs That Provide Opportunities to Promote Children’s Behavioral Health
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) has dramatically changed the health care landscape, creating new opportunities to advance health promotion, prevention, and treatment for children, parents, and families (IOM and NRC, 2015). However, the programmatic and funding landscape for children’s behavioral health following implementation of the ACA largely remains siloed, as policy makers and industry stakeholders are focused broadly on the uninsured and reforming payment and delivery systems.
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ParityTrack Completes Evaluation of Parity Implementation In All 50 States
The Kennedy Forum has unveiled the long-awaited ParityTrack, an online resource designed to provide information on parity implementation in all 50 states. The site includes reports on the pertinent legislation, regulations, and litigation in each state. It also offers a comprehensive report on federal activity. According to William Emmet, Executive Director of the Kennedy Foundation, “The findings show that we still have a long way to go in making parity a reality.”
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Health Care Reform Resource Document
The Health Care Reform Resource document was developed in attempts to catalog resources, documents, tip sheets, videos and other forms of information about the Affordable Care Act and health care reform.
Organized by topic, this resource document provides you direct links to multiple sources of information about key areas of health care reform including Essential Health Benefits, Health Insurance Exchanges, Consumer Assistance Programs, and Individual & Employer Mandates.
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Health Coverage and Care for American Indians and Alaska Natives
American Indians and Alaska Natives face persistent disparities in health and health care, including high uninsured rates, significant barriers to obtaining care, and poor health status. This brief provides an overview of health coverage and care for American Indians and Alaska Natives today and the potential implications of the ACA coverage expansions.
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Families USA releases story collection tool for ACA
Families USA has a new story collection tool to collect stories of people who have gotten covered because of the Affordable Care Act. The collection tool is now live and accepting stories at www.mycoveragestory.org. Millions of Americans are enrolling in new health care coverage over the next six months. One of the best ways to talk about the Affordable Care Act is through the stories of people who have been helped. Families USA is also adding capacity to help disseminate and vet stories so we can share successes with media and elected officials. Families USA will be working with other national and state organizations in this effort.
The Coverage Gap: Uninsured Poor Adults in States that Do Not Expand Medicaid
The expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) provides a link between new private coverage options available through either Health Insurance Marketplaces or employers and the existing Medicaid program, which previously had many gaps in coverage for adults.However, the June 2012 Supreme Court ruling made the expansion of Medicaid optional for states, and as of September 2013, 26 states did not plan to implement the expansion. In states that do not expand Medicaid, over five million poor uninsured adults have incomes above Medicaid eligibility levels but below poverty and may fall into a “coverage gap” of earning too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to qualify for Marketplace premium tax credits. Most of these people have very limited coverage options and are likely to remain uninsured. This brief describes the coverage gap and presents state estimates of the population that falls into this situation.
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How Health-Care Reform Could Improve Employment Prospects for People With Disabilities
As job growth remains persistently sluggish, women and men with disabilities are among those who face the toughest employment challenges. And in attempting to reverse these trends, some disability rights groups are looking to the promise of job creation under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) as a solution.
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9 Things Millennials Need To Know About Obamacare (But Likely Don’t)
Despite being tapped into social media networks and watching The Daily Show, only 10 percent of young Americans say they are very familiar with the Affordable Care Act.
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The Affordable Care Act’s New Tools and Resources to Improve Health and Care for Low-Income Americans Across the Country
The Commonwealth Fund Scorecard on State Health System Performance for Low-Income Populations, 2013, finds wide gaps by income in access to care, quality of care received, and health outcomes in all states, and major differences between states in health system performance for people with below-average incomes.This issue brief reviews provisions of the law that have the potential to benefit low- and modest-income individuals, including those that expand health insurance coverage; strengthen primary care and improve care coordination; bolster the capacity of providers serving low-income communities; move toward greater accountability for the quality and cost of care; and invest in public health.
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Health Reform and Immigrant Children, Youth and Families: Opportunities and Challenges for Advancing Behavioral Health
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Assessing the Potential Impact of the Affordable Care Act on Uninsured Community Health Center Patients: A Nationwide and State-by-State Analysis
In this brief, we estimate the number of uninsured community health center (CHC) patients who would gain coverage under the Affordable Care Act using data from the 2009 HRSA Survey of CHC patients and 2011 Uniform Data System. We find that were all states to implement the Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansion, an estimated 5 million uninsured health center patients – or two thirds of all uninsured patients served by CHCs nationally – would be eligible for coverage. However, over one million uninsured patients – 72% of whom live in southern states – who would have been eligible for coverage will remain uninsured because of states’ decisions to opt out of the expansion.
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Dashed Hopes, Broken Promises More Despair – How the Lack of State Participation in the Medicaid Expansion Will Punish Americans with Mental Illness
In this report, the American Mental Health Counselors Association (AMHCA) details the drastic impact that living in a state without Medicaid Expansion has on health insurance coverage for adults who have mental health conditions.
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How Will the Uninsured Fare under the Affordable Care Act?
This fact sheet, developed by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, outlines how the ACA expands health insurance coverage and how uninsured persons are eligible for assistance under the ACA.
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The Affordable Care Act and Youth Aging out of Foster Care: New Opportunities and Strategies for Action
The Affordable Care Act requires states to extend Medicaid coverage for young adults under age 26 who “aged out” of foster care, but received Medicaid while in foster care. That provision of the law presents a unique opportunity for action, according to a paper commissioned by the State Policy Advocacy and Reform Center. It means tens of thousands of young people who recently aged out of the system are eligible for coverage. The report estimates that, effectively implemented, the provision could cover nearly 100,000 young adults through 2017. But those numbers depend on how well a state implements the provision, the paper says.
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Accelerating the Affordable Care Act’s Enrollment Momentum: 10 Recommendations for Future Enrollment Periods
On March 31, 2014, the Affordable Care Act’s first enrollment period ended. Though enrollment continues for some (for example, low-income individuals who are eligible for Medicaid, people with life transitions such as family changes or job loss, and those who began the enrollment process but could not complete it before March 31), general enrollment now ceases until November 15, 2014, when the next enrollment period begins.
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Resources on Health Care Reform
On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed The Affordable Care Act into law. This comprehensive healthcare reform law includes many provisions that will impact children, youth and their families. Many websites have been developed and updated with information designed to help families and healthcare consumers navigate these changes. This document contains links to sites that provide extremely helpful guidance on the new healthcare reform law and implementation.
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What Does the Health Reform Law Mean for You and Your Family? A focus on children, youth, and families
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), signed into law in March 2010, includes new protections and resources designed to increase insurance coverage and improve the quality of health care provided to all Americans. The ACA applies to all health conditions, including specific provisions applicable to mental health and substance use conditions.
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Key Developments on ImplementatIon of the Affordable Care Act
This fact sheet was developed to provide information on the key developments in healthcare reform, including health insurance exchanges, preventative health coverage and common questions families may have about the Affordable Care Act.
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The Essential Health Benefit: Key Driver of Health Insurance Coverage for Mental Illness and Substance Use Conditions under the Affordable Care Act
This document describes the EHB and outlines steps that peers can take to help implement mental illness and substance use coverage through the EHB.
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