Covered California Names Jessica Altman as Its New Chief Executive Officer
Jessica Altman comes to Covered California from Pennsylvania, where she currently serves as the Commonwealth’s insurance commissioner, regulating the fifth-largest insurance market in the nation.
Altman brings a wealth of experience and knowledge from serving as chair of the Pennsylvania Health Insurance Exchange Authority and having led the establishment of Pennie, Pennsylvania’s state-based marketplace under the Affordable Care Act.
Altman will step into this new role following the planned departure of Peter V. Lee, Covered California’s founding executive director, who has led the organization since its inception more than a decade ago.
For months I posted weekly looks at the rate of COVID-19 cases & deaths at the county level since the end of June, broken out by partisan lean (i.e, what percent of the vote Donald Trump received in 2020), as well as by the vaccination rate of each county in the U.S. (nonpartisan).
This basically amounts to the point when the Delta Variant wave hit the U.S., although it had been quietly spreading under the radar for a few months prior to that.
Now that we're a full two months into the Omicron Variant wave, I've updated my case/death rate tracking to reflect that as well...because the data so far is showing a completely new chapter as we enter the 3rd year of the Coronavirus Pandemic.
The "start" of the Delta Wave was easy to lock in for my purposes; both cases and deaths from COVID had dropped off dramatically right up until around the end of June. The Delta Wave started showing up in the daily deaths pretty quickly as July started. The transition from the Delta to Omicron was a lot fuzzier, but I've decided to go with December 15th as my transition point.
I go by county residents who have received the 2nd COVID-19 shot only (or 1st in the case of the J&J vaccine).
Note: I've temporarily stopped tracking boosters again, as it appears that the data on this front is still too confused to get an accurate county-level national read.
I base my percentages on the total population via the 2020 U.S. Census as opposed to adults only or those over 11 years old (or even over 4 years old).
For most states + DC I use the daily data from the Centers for Disease Control, but there are some where the CDC is either missing county-level data entirely or where the CDC data is less than 90% complete at the county level. Therefore:
For Virginia, I've (reluctantly) switched back to using COVID Act Now data even though it's had some strange data lately. I'd normally use theofficial state health department dashboard, but theirs doesn't allow you to export, view or download all 95 counties/city-counties at once, making this a tedious effort.
I've spent the past few days documenting the explosion of states implementing Tax Time Special Enrollment Periods. These are new policies, pioneered by Maryland a couple of years ago, which allow uninsured residents to simply check off a new box on their state tax returns which gives permission to the state treasury department and/or ACA exchange to determine whether the tax filer is eligible for free or low-cost healthcare coverage.
If the state determines that the filers/their families are indeed eligible for either Medicaid, CHIP, or a fully-subsidized ACA exchange policy, the new program then allows state agencies to contact the tax filer to let them know they're eligible and to either enroll them automatically or work with them to get them enrolled.
As I noted in a bunch of posts yesterday, several states have launched "Tax Time Special Enrollment Periods" (Maryland launched theirs a couple years ago; Colorado, Massachusetts & Pennsylvania are bringing their programs online right now). New Mexico is also moving their own version through the legislative process.
Well, it turns out (thanks to Louise Norris for the heads up) that Virginia also passed their own version of this bill last year...although in their case it's being phased in over a two year time period:
Continuing today's theme of "state tax filing easy healthare enrollment programs," it appears that Pennsylvania has also joined several other states, including Maryland, Colorado, Massachusetts and New Mexico (pending) in implementing a new program which allows uninsured residents who didn't enroll in healthcare coverage during the normal Open Enrollment Period a second chance by checking a box when they file their state tax return.
Pennsylvania easy enrollment program expected to be in use by early 2022
Pennsylvania lawmakers considered House Bill 1030 in 2021, to create an “easy enrollment” program in Pennsylvania, much like the system that Maryland debuted in 2020, and which Colorado will start using in 2022. New Jersey lawmakers passed a similar bill in 2021.
New Mexico Easy Healthcare Enrollment Bill Passes House With Unanimous Support
SANTA FE — HB 95, which would make it easier for New Mexicans to enroll in health insurance, passed the House floor with a unanimous vote Wednesday.
The bill would give New Mexico taxpayers the option to consent to the transfer of their information to the Human Services Department or to the New Mexico Health Insurance Exchange, to help them enroll in health insurance and other programs for which they might qualify.
“All New Mexicans deserve access to quality health care for themselves and their families,” Rep. Thomson said. “More than 23,000 uninsured New Mexicans will now gain easy access to the affordable health care that they deserve.”
This legislation was sponsored by Representatives Elizabeth “Liz” Thomson (D-Albuquerque) and Christine Chandler (D-Los Alamos), Senators Elizabeth “Liz” Stefanics (D-Cerrillos) and Brenda McKenna (D-Corrales).
Simple Sign-up health insurance enrollment is as easy as checking a box on the state tax form
New program will simplify sign up for coverage through the Health Connector
February 7, 2022 – Uninsured Massachusetts residents can check a box on their state tax forms to quickly start the process of getting health insurance through the Massachusetts Health Connector’s new Simple Sign-up program. The program will increase access to health insurance, and provide assistance signing up for coverage to thousands of residents.
Through the Simple Sign-up program, when checking the box on the tax form, individuals authorize the Department of Revenue to communicate select elements of the tax filer’s information with the Health Connector. The Health Connector will use this information to create and send tailored information to the tax filer, and to work with residents towards obtaining the most appropriate health plan.
Colorado Launches Tax Time Enrollment Program for Health Coverage
A new way to get health insurance outside of the annual enrollment period
Denver – There’s something new that Coloradans can look forward to when filing their 2021 State tax return—an opportunity to enroll in free or low-cost health coverage.
It's also important to note that after both the R2 (correlation) and slope formulas have pretty much plateaued over the past few weeks.
It'll be interesting to see what happens starting around Thanksgiving now that the FDA has given final approval to the Pfizer vaccine for 5-11 year olds (remember, I only track fully-vaccinated people, and the second Pfizer shot isn't given until 3 weeks after the first; assuming the first batch of younger kids starts getting their initial dose tomorrow (November 3rd), that means they should start getting their second dose around November 24th).
