UPDATE 12/17/21: I've already submitted my comment to the Health & Human Services Dept. Now, the National Health Law Program’s My Care Counts project has created an easy-to-use public comment tool for you to submit your own. PLEASE DO SO before January 9th!
MAKE SURE *NOT* TO USE THE GENERIC DEFAULT LANGUAGE IN THE FORM, HOWEVER; MAKE IT YOUR OWN.
See the rest of the post below for the background/details on this issue.
About 2 years ago, GOP Georgia Governor Brian Kemp submitted an ACA Section 1332 Waiver request to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. As Katie Keith of Health Affairs explained at the time, it consisted of two parts...the first of which was fairly noncontroversial, the second of which was...well, not good:
DISCLAIMER: HealthSherpa is one of two Enhanced Direct Enrollment (EDE) ACA brokers which run banner ads on my site. EDEs are basically authorized private, 3rd-party versions of ACA exchange sites which have their back ends integrated directly into the federal exchange (HealthCare.Gov) (W3LL is the other EDE which advertises here).
Having said that, I believe Sherpa is the largest ACA EDE out there, and they're pretty transparent about their enrollment metrics, so until CMS posts their official Weekly Snapshot Enrollment Report (which should happen sometime today or tomorrow), Sherpa's updates are pretty good indicators of how things are going overall.
DC Residents Can Get Covered and Stayed Covered by Going to DCHealthLink.com Before the January 31, 2022 Deadline
(Washington, DC) - As the first week of DC Health Link’s 2022 open enrollment period comes to a close, Mayor Muriel Bowser is encouraging DC residents to sign up for high-quality, affordable health insurance at DCHealthLink.com, the District’s online state-based health insurance marketplace established under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Open enrollment for individuals and families runs from November 1, 2021 and continues through January 31, 2022.
“Ensuring everyone in our community is insured is a critical step in making our healthcare landscape more equitable,” said Mayor Bowser. “Keeping our community healthy means ensuring all Washingtonians are getting the right care at the right time. We never want people in our city to put off healthcare because of a lack of coverage. Now is the time to get covered and stay covered, and that process can start at DCHealthLink.com.”
Free in-person help offered to Connecticut residents at pop-up enrollment fairs and daily on-site locations
HARTFORD, Conn. (Nov. 4, 2021)—Access Health CT (AHCT) announced today that in addition to on-site locations, it will offer three in-person enrollment fairs in Fairfield, Hartford and Waterbury during November, giving Connecticut residents more time to shop, compare and enroll in quality health insurance plans.
All in-person enrollment fairs will be held from 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. at the following locations in Fairfield, Hartford and Waterbury.
Here's the weekly look 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).
The ratio of case rates has started to drop; new cases are now running 2.9x higher per capita in the reddest tenth of the country than the bluest tenth, down from 3.0x higher a couple of weeks ago:
I go by FULLY vaccinated residents only (defined as 2 doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine).
I base my percentages on the total population, as opposed to adults only or those over 11 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 California, I'm using the CDC data for most counties and the state health dept. dashboard data for the 8 small counties which the CDC isn't allowed to post data for.
Well, as the long-gestating legislation finally heads into the endgame this week, there's been a last-minute rush to add to & change some provisions of the bill before it actually gets voted on, and earlier today, the House Rules Committee released a revised/updated version of the bill, including a handy comparison version which shows exactly what legislative language has changed since the prior version.
Many of these changes are either simple grammatical or wording tweaks to make sure it all passes legal muster, while others simply provide clarification. Other changes involve simply increasing or decreasing the amount of federal money which would be allocated to one program or another.
Greater savings for young adults and higher-income households are new this open enrollment
BALTIMORE — With greater savings than ever for young adults and for households previously ineligible for financial help, open enrollment for the 2022 plan year begins today at MarylandHealthConnection.gov, the state’s online health insurance marketplace.
Open enrollment runs from Nov. 1, 2021, through Jan. 15, 2022. Coverage starts Jan. 1, 2022, for plans selected before Dec. 31, and coverage starts on Feb. 1, 2022, for plans selected in the first two weeks of January. Those who qualify for Medicaid may enroll any time of year.
This year, many people can get a health plan for as little as $1 a month. Even for those who have looked before, it’s worth coming back, because there are now savings available for households at all income levels. Plus, a new Maryland law allows for adults ages 18 to 34 to get discounts on top of other savings.
