EXCHANGE 101
- Explaining Health Care Reform: Questions About Health Insurance Exchanges, Kaiser Family Foundation, April 2010
This summary explains the purpose and function of Exchanges and how they relate to regulation of the insurance market.
- Why We Need a Health Insurance Exchange, Families USA, June 2011
- Insurance Exchanges: Why New York Needs Active Purchasing, Health Care for All New York, June 2011
EXCHANGE ADVOCACY
- The Pennsylvania Health Law Project recently co-authored two reports with guiding principles for implementing the Affordable Care Act. The first report, co-authored with the Pennsylvania Health Access Network, focuses on ensuring that Pennsylvania’s health insurance exchange will offer coverage that is affordable and accessible. The second report focuses on protecting the gains in children’s access to quality care as the development and implementation of health care reform moves ahead.
- Joint Position Statement for Implementing a Health Insurance Exchange, Pennsylvania Health Access Network
- Exchanges: Top Ten Priorities for Consumer Advocates, Community Catalyst, March 2011
- Health Insurance Exchanges and the Affordable Care Act: Key Policy Issues, Commonwealth Fund, July 2010
IN DEPTH
- Health Insurance Exchanges: A Guide to State Activities and Choices, Families USA, October 2010
This guide describes the requirements in the Affordable Care Act that all the new exchanges must meet. It also outlines activities and choices that states face as they begin to design their new health insurance exchanges, along with various issues that consumer advocates should consider as their states address them.
- Obtaining Exchange Funding and Achieving Consumer-Friendly Outcomes: A State “To Do” List, Families USA, May 2011
This brief outlines tasks for states to address in order to obtain federal exchange establishment grants and to move forward with the implementation of consumer-friendly state exchanges by 2014. For even more information, visit: www.familiesusa.org/health-reform-central/
- Ten Considerations for States in Linking Medicaid and the Health Benefit Exchanges, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, August 2011
This brief, authored by the Center for Health Care Strategies, looks at the opportunities for linkages between public and private coverage, explaining that such linkages should seek to streamline administration across programs and facilitate seamless transitions between programs for individuals. Continuity of benefits, providers and health plans is is critical to developing a smooth road map for exchanges.
- Establishing Health Insurance Exchanges: An Update on State Efforts, Kaiser Family Foundation, July 2011
This brief reviews states’ progress, examines the choices and challenges they face, and summarizes the early trends that have emerged in terms of the governance, structure and financing of the new exchanges. The law requires states to demonstrate sufficient progress towards establishing a “fully operational” exchange by January 2013.
OTHER STATES
- Five Standards for the New York State Insurance Exchange, Health Care for All New York, 2010
- The Time is Ripe for Advocates to Weigh in On Exchanges, Georgetown Center for Children and Families Say Ahhh! blog post by Joel Ferber, Legal Services of Eastern Missouri, August 4, 2011
- Easy, Efficient and Real-Time (EER): A Framework for a First-Class Health Insurance Enrollment Experience in California, The Children’s Partnership, July 2011
This framework lays out, step by step, how eligibility, enrollment, and retention should work for consumers so that California can meet the expectations of the Affordable Care Act. While developed for California, this framework can be used in any state to help stakeholders focus on the elements that matter most for consumers. It is designed to be a practical resource for decision-makers as they work to achieve our shared goal: a simple, efficient door into health care in California that works well for its consumers.