Minnesota Legal Services Coalition

Health Reform Explainer Looks at Medicaid Benefits and Cost-Sharing for Adult Beneficiaries

Under health reform, Medicaid eligibility will be expanded to reach nearly everyone under age 65 with income below 133 percent of the federal poverty level. As a result, millions of uninsured adults, including many with very low income and significant health needs, will become eligible for the program. A new health reform explainer from the Kaiser Family Foundation's Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured provides details of the benefit and cost-sharing rules that will govern the coverage available to these newly-eligible adults Medicaid beneficiaries, and it identifies key considerations for state policymakers making Medicaid benefit design choices. The health reform explainer is available online.

Study Finds Younger Medicare Beneficiaries With Disabilities Struggle More With Cost and Access than Seniors  

Younger Medicare beneficiaries with disabilities are much more likely than seniors in the program to report problems accessing and paying for needed medical services, Kaiser Family Foundation researchers report in a Web First article published today by Health Affairs.

Based on a national random-sample survey of people on Medicare, the study finds that half of nonelderly disabled beneficiaries report problems paying for health care services in the previous 12 months - nearly three times the rate reported by seniors (50 percent compared with 18 percent). Similarly, 46 percent of nonelderly beneficiaries with disabilities report delaying or not getting health care services because of cost, compared with 16 percent of seniors.

The article by Cubanski and Neuman, "Medicare Doesn't Work As Well For Younger, Disabled Beneficiaries As It Does For Older Enrollees," is available online and will appear in the September issue of Health Affairs.

New Releases Examine Medicaid Benefits and Enrollment Systems Under Health Reform

Under the new health reform law, Medicaid eligibility will be expanded significantly beginning in 2014, and an estimated 16 million more low-income people, mostly uninsured adults, are expected to gain coverage through the program by 2019.

Three new publications from the Kaiser Family Foundation's Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured look at important Medicaid benefit and enrollment issues stemming from the reform law.

• Explaining Health Reform: Benefits and Cost-Sharing for Adult Medicaid Beneficiaries lays out the rules governing the Medicaid benefits that will be offered to newly-eligible adults under health reform, and the choices and considerations for states.
• Optimizing Medicaid Enrollment: Spotlight on Technology is a new series examining how states are currently using technology in innovative ways to streamline and simplify Medicaid enrollment. The series begins with Louisiana's Express Lane Eligibility.
• Explaining Health Reform: Eligibility And Enrollment Processes For Medicaid, CHIP and Subsidies in the Exchange outlines key provisions of the reform law that, taken together, offer a blueprint for tightly-coordinated and consumer-friendly eligibility and enrollment systems with seamless coverage as their goal.