“California’s health insurance exchange is canceling Obamacare coverage for 10,474 people who failed to prove their citizenship or legal residency in the U.S..
Covered California, the state-run insurance exchange, enrolled more than 1.2 million people during the rollout of the Affordable Care Act this year. For most consumers, the exchange said, it could verify citizenship or immigration status instantly with a federal data hub.
But more than 148,000 enrollees were lacking proof of eligibility and needed to submit documentation. People living in the U.S. illegally aren’t eligible for health law coverage.””
“Colorado’s 2.0 “Kentucky-style” system that is supposed to simplify the way people get health insurance won’t be ready until days before the Nov. 15 open enrollment starts.
And as Colorado’s health exchange enters its busy season, a third “chief” has announced she’s leaving Connect for Health Colorado. Chief Executive Patty Fontneau departed in August. Chief Financial Officer Cammie Blais left two weeks ago. And Chief Operating Officer Lindy Hinman announced her resignation and plans to leave next month after open enrollment begins.”
“Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) said Monday he wouldn’t mind if the state healthcare insurance exchange known as Kentucky Kynect stayed but reiterated his call for the full repeal of ObamaCare.
Policy experts have questioned the feasibility of preserving the popular state exchange while also repealing the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which set it up and similar exchanges around the country.
“Kentucky Kynect is a website. It was paid for by a two-hundred-and-some-odd-million-dollar grant from the federal government. The website can continue but in my view the best interests of the country would be achieved by pulling out ObamaCare root and branch,” McConnell said in a debate with Alison Lundergan Grimes, the Democratic candidate for Senate.”
“On November 15, open enrollment in the Obamacare exchanges begins again. Before the second act of our national healthcare drama commences, let’s review what we’ve learned in Act I.
For starters, everyone now knows that federal officials are challenged when it comes to setting up a website. But they’ve demonstrated the ability to dole out a huge amount of taxpayers’ money for millions of people signing up for Medicaid, a welfare program. And they’ve proved they can send hundreds of millions of federal taxpayers’ dollars to their bureaucratic counterparts in states, like Maryland and Oregon, that can’t manage their own exchanges. But there are many other lessons to be gleaned from Year One of Obamacare.”
“HealthCare.gov, the website for health insurance under President Barack Obama’s health care law, has been revamped as its second enrollment season approaches. But things are still complicated, since other major provisions of the Affordable Care Act are taking effect for the first time. A look at some of the website and program changes ahead:
Old: 76 online screens to muddle through in insurance application.
New: 16 screens — for the basic application that most new customers will use. But about a third of those new customers are expected to have more complicated cases, and how they’ll fare remains to be seen.
Old: Prone to crashing, even with relatively few users.
New: Built to withstand last season’s peak loads and beyond, at least 125,000 simultaneous users. Actual performance still to be demonstrated.
Old: Six-month open enrollment season, extended to accommodate customers bogged down by website glitches or stuck in line at the last minute.
New: Shorter open enrollment season, just three months, from Nov. 15 to Feb. 15.”
“With the second Obamacare open-enrollment beginning on November 15th, the enrollment system’s testing begins with insurance companies this week.
Of course, last year the enrollment system testing was a real mess resulting in a humiliating Obamacare launch for the administration.
Up until now I wasn’t expecting any major problems with HealthCare.gov’s consumer enrollment system given all of the lessons learned and the new people running things.
But apparently, the administration is pretty worried about what could happen.”
“There are dozens of ways to escape Obamacare’s individual mandate tax — but good luck figuring that out come tax season.
Tens of millions of Americans can avoid the fee if they qualify for exemptions like hardship or living in poverty, but the convoluted process has some experts worried individuals will be tripped up by lost paperwork, the need to verify information with multiple sources and long delays that extend beyond tax season.
“It’s not going to be pretty,” said George Brandes, vice president of health care programs at Jackson Hewitt, a tax prep firm. “Just because you theoretically qualify for hardship, or another exemption, doesn’t mean you’re going to get it.””
“The Obama administration has already debuted its new, improved version of HealthCare.gov, but still won’t release premium rates on the website until after the Nov. 4 elections.
The Department of Health and Human Services unveiled the updated federal Obamacare exchange on Wednesday. The website is, by all accounts, in much better condition than last year.
HHS secretary Sylvia Burwell has said that the administration has put the new version of HealthCare.gov through its paces. And the administration has allowed insurers to test the site out themselves — although they made clear that insurance companies are not allowed to share their results with the media.”
“CMS says that states should reimburse Medicaid managed care plans for the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance provider fee, and says that the fee itself should be incorporated into plans’ capitation rates, however, as the firm JP Morgan notes, the agency leaves some “wiggle room” on whether states should also factor in other potential effects of the fee, such as its non-deductibility status. Medicaid Health Plans of America President Jeff Myers said CMS’ recently released frequently asked questions document provides certainty for plans, particularly in states that hadn’t yet agreed to cover those fees.
Myers said the plans are gratified CMS decided to move forward with the FAQ, and the release of the FAQ and the 2015 Managed Care Rate Setting Consultation guide suggest that CMS would like to play a more involved role in rate setting for managed care. Since plans have been asking for more transparency around rate setting, CMS’ involvement could be a net positive, Myers said. The Government Accountability Office has also said that CMS’ oversight of the rate-setting process needs improvement.”
“Health Reform: Wal-Mart says it’s cutting health benefits to part-timers and boosting worker premiums. If a retail empire built on low prices can’t find a way around ObamaCare’s added costs, we are all doomed.
The world’s biggest retailer announced this week that its health costs will be about 48% higher for the current fiscal year than it had expected in February. As a result, it’s cutting 30,000 part-timers from its health benefit plan, raising worker-paid premiums by 19% and trimming its co-payment for health costs above the deductible.
“We had to make some tough decisions,” benefits director Sally Wellborn told the Associated Press. But to hear President Obama tell it, Wal-Mart just didn’t shop around.
That, at least, was what he said when the general manager of the Indiana-based Millennium Steel asked Obama last week about the company’s double-digit premium hikes.
Obama’s response: “The question is whether you guys are shopping effectively enough.””