Kaiser Family Foundation: American’s opinion of the health care law closely divided

The Kaiser Health Tracking Poll for April found public opinion of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) continues to be almost evenly split, with 43 percent reporting a favorable view and 42 percent reporting an unfavorable view.

Among the key findings, when asked what the next health care priority should be for the White House and Congress, 76 percent of Americans responded "making sure that high-cost drugs for chronic conditions, such as HIV, hepatitis, mental illness and cancer, are affordable to those who need them."

NIHCM Data Brief on Trends in Employer-Sponsored Insurance

Recent accounts of employers dropping health coverage, restricting eligibility for spouses, turning to plans with narrower networks and greater cost sharing, and restructuring workforces are often framed as side effects of the ACA. But many of these cost-cutting trends began long before health reform. This data brief from the National Institute of Health Care Management offers a comprehensive look at how employer-sponsored insurance has been changing and how provisions of the ACA and other dynamics might affect this market. Topics include:

• the decline in rates of employers offering health insurance, particularly for smaller firms with lower-wage workers
• projections of the ACA’s impact on employer-sponsored coverage and part-time workers
• the ongoing movement to greater employee cost sharing and shift into high deductible plans
• growing employer reliance on workforce wellness programs and interest in defined contributions and private exchanges
• the emerging focus on promoting value through reference pricing, high performance networks and transparency
• the trend toward self-insurance among smaller firms

Alliance for Health Reform Report on Health Care Costs

The Alliance for Health Reform is out with a new report on the drivers of rising health care costs in the United States — from medical waste, to fee-for-service payments, to improvements in medical technology, to chronic illness. The report includes feedback from CMS chief Marilyn Tavenner, who told the group her agency is seeking to control costs by emphasizing primary care, piloting programs to treat Medicare-Medicaid “dual eligibles” and coordinating patient care. Also contributing to the report are Helen Darling of the National Business Group on Health, Susan Reinhard of AARP, Dan Mendelson of Avalere Health, and Kenneth Thorpe of Emory University. The Alliance hopes its report will inform policymakers as they look to control the deficit in upcoming debt ceiling negotiations.

How much do you know about health reform?

The health reform law promises to deliver big changes in the U.S. health care system. But, as with other sweeping pieces of legislation, it can be hard to get the real facts about what it does. And it is all too easy for misinformation about the law to spread.


The Kaiser Family Foundation has developed a short, 10-question quiz to test your knowledge of the law, and then find out how you compare to the rest of the country.

American Benefits Council's New, More User-Friendly Website

The American Benefits Council, an important strategic partner of NBCH, has announced its new, more user-friendly website. The Health Care Reform issue page is now divided into its component pages, covering the wide variety of health reform issues addressed by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). These individual topics are:

• Employer Shared Responsibility
• Market Reforms & Adult Child/Age-26 Coverage
• Preventive Care & Value-Based Design
• Quality Improvement & Delivery Reform
• Essential Benefits
• Tax & Revenue Issues
• Grandfathered Plans
• Claims and Appeals
• Summary of Benefits & Coverage
• Information Reporting/W2
• Health Insurance Exchanges
• State Innovation (including waiver guidance and activity)
• Medical Loss Ratio & Mini-Med Plans
• Automatic Enrollment
• Wellness Programs
• Accountable Care Organizations
• Non-Discrimination (under Internal Revenue Code Section 105(h))

As always, these pages are listed with the Legislative items at the top with the Regulatory items below and the Judicial items at the bottom. You can always use the links at the top of the page to instantly jump to a specific section. Members are encouraged to visit ABC's website and explore these helpful resources.

Financial Impact of Health Reform on Employer Benefits not as Significant as Anticipated

In spite of employer fears, the financial impact of the provisions in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) have not been as significant as anticipated for most businesses and fewer U.S. employers responded that they plan to drop coverage due to the law’s mandate than was reported in 2010. These are some of the key findings from a new 2012 employer survey conducted by the Midwest Business Group on Health (MBGH) and co-sponsored by the National Business Coalition on Health (NBCH), Business Insurance and Workforce Management.

Many survey respondents indicated support for the ACA provisions that enable changes in provider payment, medical care coordination and providing medical cost and quality information for consumers. The survey also revealed divergent views among employers on whether the Supreme Court will or should strike down the individual mandate or the entire Act. This is the third national survey in a series conducted by MBGH since 2010 to gain an understanding of areas of most concern to employers related to health reform, and to help educate and inform purchasers and policymakers.

Washington Post on second anniversary of health reform

On the second anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, there is a great deal of commentary around the pros and cons, as well as predictions as to what will happen after the Supreme Court hears arguments on the constitutionality of the individual mandate.

Here are two articles on the topic in today's Washington Post:

"Health reform turns 2," by Ezra Klein

"Health reform at 2: Why American health care will never be the same," by Sara Kliff

Participation Requested: National Employer Survey on ACA

We would like to invite you to include your views in a national survey intended to collect and report on how employers are responding to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) health reform law.

By completing this survey, you will receive a copy of the results in the form of valuable benchmarking information on how other employers of your size and industry are designing their health benefit strategies and programs. It will also provide business advocates with information on how to best represent employer interests and concerns about the law.

To start the survey, click on the following link: Health Reform's Impact on Employer Health Benefits.

The survey is sponsored by the the Midwest Business Group on Health, National Business Coalition on Health, Business Insurance, Workforce Management, Aon Hewitt and Buck Consultants

Interactive health reform implementation timeline tool

To understand how and when the provisions of the health reform law will be implemented over the next several years, the Kaiser Family Foundation offers an interactive tool -- Implementation Timeline.

You can show or hide all of the changes occurring in a year by clicking on that year (and customize by topic such as employer, prescription drugs, quality, etc.).

End this medical secrecy

Transparency in health care is one of the key tools consumers have to help them judge the quality of health care. Transparency allows the public to see where mistakes have been made. Unfortunately, that transparency has been steadily disappearing under the misnamed "Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act," which not only allows data about medical mistakes to be hidden, it makes disclosing quality problems at providers a crime for anyone except the providers involved. Read the full article...

President Obama nominates Tavenner to take Berwick's post at CMS

The Obama administration on Wednesday nominated CMS principal deputy Marilynn Tavenner to replace outgoing administrator Donald Berwick, MD.

Berwick, in tandem, announced his resignation – which comes after a political impasse, in which Republicans effectively blocked a Senate confirmation. Read the full article...

Health-care groups laying groundwork for post-election debate over cost cuts

Regardless of whether Congress’s supercommittee meets its deadline for finding ways to reduce the federal deficit, budget and policy experts are braced for Washington to soon face the painful task of finding even more savings — and they anticipate that health spending, which makes up more than a fifth of the federal budget, will be a main target.

Some health-care leaders are already laying the groundwork to redirect a debate they’re expecting in 2013, after the 2012 election. They hope to prevent spending from simply being shifted from one part of the system to another. Read the full article...

Health Care Exchanges: National Governors Association Advising Six States

The National Governors Association will be helping six states facilitate discussion on the creation of health care exchanges, which are required to be in place nationwide by 2014 as a provision of President Obama's health care.

The group will be working with officials from Alabama, Illinois, Kentucky, Nevada, Utah and Washington to discuss how states should create the exchanges to best provide the "one-stop shopping" for health insurance outlined by Obama. Read the full article...

Supreme Court to hear challenge to Obama’s health-care overhaul

The Supreme Court decided on Monday to review President Obama’s 2010 health-care overhaul, promising a high-profile hearing on the question dominating American politics: the constitutional limits of the federal government’s power.

Next March, around the second anniversary of the act’s passage, the nine justices will hear arguments in the case, taking on the role of constitutional referee between those who see the law as a trespass on individual and states’ rights and those who consider it an extension of a safety net to Americans regardless of where they live or work. Read the full article...

In implementing health reform, governors are turning to unilateral action

Governors in five states -- Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Rhode Island and now Minnesota-- have used executive orders to move forward on the law. And when you count states that have pursued grant money through their executive branch, that number rises to 15, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. That includes all the medium-blue states on this map (an interactive version). Read the full article...

The New Wave of Innovation: How the Health Care System Is Reforming

This report shines a light on emerging innovations, providing examples from different sectors across the country, to inform journalists and others of the different ways in which the system is reforming itself. It may also provide ideas for journalists who are interested in exploring the early effects of health reform and the implications for the future. Download the report here...

HHS announces refined survey standards to examine and help eliminate differences in care based on race, ethnicity, sex, primary language, or disability

“Many racial and ethnic minorities, people with limited English proficiency, people with disabilities, and other populations face unique health challenges, often have reduced access to health care and often pay the price with poorer health,” said Garth Graham, M.D., MPH, HHS deputy assistant secretary for minority health. “Today we are implementing an important provision of the Affordable Care Act that reinforces our commitment to reducing these health disparities. These new standards will help us carry forward the HHS Action Plan to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities and our work to address disparities in people with disabilities as well.” Read the full release...

Health Reform Won't Dismantle Employer Coverage, Report Says

Health reform won’t lead most companies to drop insurance benefits, according to an analysis out today from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Urban Institute.

The new report’s conclusion: Companies won’t drop coverage en masse. Employers that offer insurance today do so because they compete for labor. That competitive pressure will remain once the health law takes effect. Employer-sponsored coverage is already subsidized (because it’s compensation that’s not taxed), and most employees that already have coverage wouldn't get better deals buying plans through exchanges. Read the full article...

Repeating Martin Luther King Jr.'s call for health-care equity

Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, reflects on her brush 50 years ago with Martin Luther King Jr. and how equity in health care must be a priority for society.

Two generations ago, when Dr. King issued a stinging indictment of the inequalities of the health of Americans, I had no idea how much his words would affect my life, or all of our lives. He said, "Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and the most inhumane."

He was spot on then and it's spot on today. America simply cannot reconcile the differences that divide us without also reconciling the inequality and injustice that's embedded so deeply in the health and health care of our people. Read the full article...

The Specifics: How Obama Plans To Cut Health Programs By $320 Billion

In his plan to trim the federal deficit, President Barack Obama Monday proposed $320 billion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, largely by changing how the federal government pays health providers, slashing payments to drug companies, and dramatically changing the way it splits the costs of Medicaid with the states, according to a fact sheet the White House released. Read the full article...