Sebelius breaks it down on the Daily Show

Posted on January 27, 2012 by hcfany

Did anybody watch this? On Monday, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius made a guest appearance on the Daily Show to talk about the Affordable Care Act.

She does a pretty good job of hashing out what’s in the law and what’s not, and Jon Stewart is, as always, just charming.

In case you missed it, you can still watch the full interview, in two parts, on the Daily Show website.  Click here to watch. 

 

Filed under: ACA, Federal health reform, Insurance Exchange | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a Comment »

TV for your health

Posted on January 26, 2012 by hcfany

PBS Newshour had a great little segment last night on a project out of Colorodo aimed at improving health among the Latino population.  This is done by delivering public health messages via telenovelas.

For those of you who may not have grown up watching Univision or Telemundo, telenovelas are basically like soap operas, but way better.  They have shorter runs, different genres, and jucier stories that develop much more quickly.  They also happen to be a big hit in the Latino community.

The Latino community, however, happens to have the highest rates of uninsurance in the nation – about 34%. 

“Encrucijada: Sin Salud No Hay Nada,” or “Crossroads: Without Health, There Is Nothing,” is a telenovela funded by the Colorado Health Foundation that follows four health workers and focuses on a lot of issues that affect Latinos disproportionally, like diabetes and lack of insurance. Viewers are encouraged to call a toll-free number if they are experiencing issues like those faced by the characters on the show.

Apprarently, this show has been going on for a while becuase they are already filming season 2!  And, it seems to be getting some traction too – since the show first aired in May of last year, more than 800 people have phoned into the hotline.  That’s no small peanuts!

Wouldn’t it be great to do something like this in NY? Maybe El Bloombito could even have a small cameo role as, well, mayor or something :-)

Click here to read the story from PBS Newshour, titled “Telenovelas Provide Platform for Public Health Message.”

Click here to watch the trailer (in Spanish).

 

Filed under: Women, Medical debt, Underinsured, Immigrants, young adult, Consumer Assistance | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

Fell asleep early last night?

Posted on January 25, 2012 by hcfany

I’m sure all of you are busy celebrating your State of the Union bingo victories from last night, but anybody who missed last night’s address by President Obama can easily fill themselves in today.

You can watch a video of the entire address above, or read the full text by clicking here (via Bloomberg).

Noticeably absent from the president’s speech was any talk of health care or health reform.  Sure, Medicare and Medicaid both got a quick mention.  But health reform…not so much.  Here’s a transcript that Kaiser Health News put together on just the health care mentions.

That’s been the source of some speculation this morning.  So, just why didn’t President Obama mention the Affordable Care Act? Well, my guess is that he probably didn’t think it would do any good to bring up such a contentious issue at this point in the game.  Sarah Kliff, of the Washington Post, also offers her take in an article titled “O Health Care, Where Art Thou?”

Just a little bit of food for thought.

 

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Good times.

Posted on January 24, 2012 by hcfany

From left: Lorraine Gonzalez, Children’s Defense Fund of NY, Kevin Keogh, Small Business Majority, Jennifer Torres, New York Immigration Coalition, Becca Talzek, Make the Road NY, Heidi Siegfried, New Yorkers for Accessible Health Coverage, Jasmine Burnett, Raising Women’s Voices.

HCFANY held a short briefing this morning for coalition members and allies in the NYC area. For those of you who were not able to make it to HCFANY’s NYC briefing this morning, here is just a short recap of the events.

The first session focused on a recap of the 2011 legislative session, presented by Elisabeth Benjamin of the Community Service Society.  Lisa Sbrana, a policy analyst with the NYS Department of Health was our special guest for the day.  She gave a pretty thorough overview of where NY is in the health reform implementation process and talked about the new health insurance exchange bill in the budget, which is essentially very close to last year’s exchange bill. 

She also updated us on the progress the state has made on the different studies the State has promised to do.  For example, the Urban Institute’s report on the Basic Health Plan provision of the ACA is due out next week.  Another report on how New York will pay for the exchange after 2015 is set to be released by Wakely Consulting later his quarter. 

Lisa also directed us to the Enroll UX 2014 website, at www.ux2014.org , which is a design initiative that NY is participating in with 10 other states, the federal government, and several state health care foundations to hash out the basic enrollment interface that consumers will use on many of the forthcoming health insurance exchanges.  Many states (including New York) will be able to use this as a template to customize as they implement their own exchanges.

The second session included a presentation from Lois Uttley of Raising Women’s Voices, on how to talk about health care reform in 2012.  This was based on data pulled together by Lake Research Partners.  

Lastly, a panel of HCFANY steering committee members went over HCFANY’s policy objectives for 2012, and who our key constituencies will be.

Overall, we walked away with a lot of new information on where New York is now in terms of health reform implementation, and what to expect in the coming months.  What a fine way to spend the morning!

Filed under: ACA, Federal health reform, Insurance Exchange, Insurance reform, New York Health Reform, State Department of Health | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

Don’t believe everything you read.

Posted on January 20, 2012 by hcfany

With the idea that all people deserve quality, affordable health care now such a partisan issue in the presidential race, it’s no wonder the media has been flooded with articles, editorials, polls and research on the topic.

You could easily read one thing telling you Americans love health reform and then turn around and see another saying Americans hate health reform, with both somehow having the numbers to back them up.

So, who is right?

Well, that’s a tricky issue.  See, people can use numbers to show whatever they want them to show, but they don’t often show you the fine print.  This is a topic covered today in a guest piece written in The New Republic by Harold Pollack, a professor at the University of Chicago, and Vivek Murthy, a physician and co-founder of Doctors for America.

The article spotlights a piece that came out in Forbes recently that said that doctors are against “Obamacare.”  It cited a poll to prove this. 

But, it turns out the Forbes article wasn’t telling the whole story.  Pollack and Murthy explain this by going through to point out the polling information that the Forbes article actually left out.  They also point out many other facts that are left out.  The result? Well, it turns out that all doctors everywhere can’t be defined by a single poll.  And, all things considered, it looks like most doctors probably do like health reform.  

Anyways, it’s definitely a good read.  If anything, it serves as a good reminder that much of what you read on contentious issues like health reform should be taken with a grain of salt.  Especially during an election year! 

Click here to read the New Republic article, appropriately titled “No, Doctors Don’t Hate Obamacare.” 

 

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The Exchange Bill is back!

Posted on January 18, 2012 by hcfany

As mentioned in the update to yesterday’s post, the proposed budget released yesterday included a new provision to establish a New York health insurance exchange (or “Health Benefit Exchange”).   This was included in the Health and Mental Hygiene Article VII bill.

The proposed language in this new iteration of the bill looks in many ways very similar to the negotiated bill that passed in the Assembly last year.  There are a couple of small changes though.  With relation to the governing board, the timelines have been changed somewhat.  And, the timelines for reports on the various studies that were included in last year’s version have also been shifted around a bit. 

Lastly, there’s a new provision that says that the exchange can also rely on information from other outside studies (if they are determined to be reliable) instead of conducting any of the listed studies.  Now, that is interesting, though it’s not clear yet how much this will factor in.

So, there you have it.  Basically it’s a new version of last year’s bill.  Let’s cross our fingers that this one actually passes!

 

Filed under: ACA, Comprehensive Coverage, Governor Cuomo, Insurance Exchange, New York State Budget | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

NYS budget to be released today

Posted on January 17, 2012 by hcfany

Governor Cuomo is set to give his budget address today at 2 PM to outline his spending plan for the next year.  Expected to be on the agenda, of course, is more on Medicaid.  Some are speculating that he will talk about a state take-over of local county Medicaid expenses. 

Also expected on the agenda is talk of the New York State health insurance exhange, which was included as a priority in his State of the State address given earlier this month.

Today’s budget address will be streamed live on the web for anyone interested in viewing it.  You can click here to watch.

UPDATE: The budget documents have been released and are posted online.  Click here to view them.  The formal proposal for an insurance exchange is in Section E of the Health and Mental Hygiene Article VII bill, which you can view by clicking here.  

 

Filed under: ACA, Federal health reform, Governor Cuomo, Insurance Exchange, New York State Budget | Tagged: , , , , | Comments Off

Cute! And educational. But, more importantly, cute!

Posted on January 13, 2012 by hcfany

Well, those wizards at the Kaiser Family Foundation have done it again.  They have found yet another way to blow this blogger’s mind.  This time, in the form of a 9 minute cartoon on health reform.

It’s titled “Health Reform Hits Main Street,” and is narrated by – who else? – Cokie Roberts.  Never thought I would see a cartoon narrated by Cokie Roberts.  But, then again, I never thought I would call health reform “cute” either.  For those who don’t remember, Roberts is a news commentator for ABC News and NPR.  Apparently, she is also a member of Kaiser’s Board of Trustees.

As you may have guessed by now, the cartoon is super cute.  And educational! It basically explains the problems with the current health care system, the changes that are happening now, and the big changes coming in 2014. And…it’s available in Spanish too!

So, go ahead: pick your language, pour yourself a big bowl of Lucky Charms, and click play!

P.S. – And no, the Spanish version isn’t also narrated by Cokie Roberts.  Rather, it is narrated by Dr. Isabel Gomez-Bassols, host of the program “La Doctora Isabel, el Angel de la Radio” which airs on Univision.

 

Filed under: ACA, Federal health reform, Insurance reform, New York Health Reform, Underinsured, Uninsured | Tagged: , , , , | Comments Off

New York’s got your back, Health Reform!

Posted on January 12, 2012 by hcfany

Yesterday, we learned that a group of over 450 legislators from all 50 states (and Washington D.C.) have joined together to file what’s called an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court supporting the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act.

An amicus brief is basically a written legal opinion which is submitted to the court in response to a case.  But, it’s up to the court to decide if they will take that opinion into consideration or not. The brief will be filed tomorrow, Friday the 13th (no ominous foreshadowing intended).

Twenty-five legislators from New York were part of this filing: Assembly Members Richard Gottfried, Thomas Abinanti, Michael Bendetto, James Brennan, Kevin Cahill, Jeffrey Dinowitz, Sandy Galef, Vanessa Gibson, Deborah Glick, Rhoda Jacobs, Ellen Jaffee, Charles Lavine, Barbara Lifton, Alan Maisel, Joan L. Millman, Felix Ortiz, Crystal Peoples-Stokes, Nick Perry, Peter Rivera, Robert Rodriguez, Linda Rosenthal, Michelle Schimel, Eric Stevenson, David Weprin, and State Senator Gustavo Rivera.  Click here to read Assembly Member Gottfried’s press release on the matter.

Now, anybody not in Rivera’s district may be thinking to yourselves, “Yay Assembly! But where are my State Senators?”

And yes, we all know that the State Senate has a Republican majority and that makes turning out a whole lot of support for “Obamacare” rather…difficult…, but that doesn’t mean our Senate Democrats are all just sitting on their hands either.  A group of Democratic leaders in the State Senate (i.e. Minority Leader John Sampson and Senators Tom Duane and Neil Breslin) this morning sent an open letter to Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos on the the benefits that an insurance exchange will bring for New Yorkers (and state coffers), stressing the importance of reaching bi-partisan agreement on this issure.  You can click here to read the full letter.

So, if you’re happy to see your elected officials working to make health care better and more affordable for YOU – be sure to tell them! Drop a line to their office or shoot them a quick email and just say, “Hey man (lady, whatever), thanks for sticking up for my health care needs and for working to do what’s right for New York.” Really, it’s the least you can do.

And if you didn’t see your elected’s name up here…well, go ahead and ask them why the heck not!!! A little guilt can go a long way too ;-) .

You can click on those names up there to contact folks directly, or if you don’t see your own electeds’ names up there you can find them on the State Senate website and the State Assembly website.  And if you don’t know who your electeds are, you can also plug in your address on either of those website to find out.

 

Filed under: ACA, Comprehensive Coverage, Federal health reform, Insurance reform | Tagged: , , , | Comments Off

Tapping into your inner nerd

Posted on January 10, 2012 by hcfany

They say you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.  Well, what if instead of water you lead it to a giant chocolate-peanut butter-banana milkshake? Would that change things?

Jonathan Gruber thinks so!

He has written a new graphic novel (you know, like a comic strip, but longer) on – you guessed it – health reform!  The idea behind this, of course, is to be able to explain the law in a more easy to digest way because, the fact of the matter is that a lot of people still don’t understand exactly what health reform entails or why they should support it.

In case you’re still scratching your head thinking about who this Gruber fellow might be, you may recall that he was one of the lead economists who worked on the original Massachusett’s health reform bill on which the federal law was based. 

Kaiser Health News posted an interview with him on his new book and his reasoning behind taking this approach to tackle a pretty complicated subject.  You can read that interview here.

The book, which is titled, “Health Reform: What it is, Why it’s necessary, How it works” is now available Amazon.com for $11.15  and gets an average of 4 out of 5 stars (from 14 reviewers).  You can click on the picture below for a preview, or click here to go directly to the Amazon site to see a longer preview (or buy the book). Check it out!   

 

Filed under: ACA, Federal health reform, young adult | Tagged: , , , | Comments Off

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