medicaid

Bob Semro's presentation to the League of Women Voters on "The Affordable Care Act – after the Supreme Court ruling."

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Bob Semro, the Bell's policy analyst on health care issues, recently presented a webinar titled "Baby Boomers, Seniors and the Long-Term Care Challenge."

The webinar was prepared for the Society of Certified Senior Associates, a national organization that educates professionals who work with seniors on a wide range of issues. The presentation explores institutional challenges facing baby boomers and seniors over the next two decades with regard to long-term care.

Bob Semro, the Bell's policy analyst on health care issues, recently conducted a webinar on how the Affordable Care Act will affect seniors.

This informative presentation was well-received, and we wanted to make it available to a wider audience. The webinar was prepared for the Society of Certified Senior Associates, a national organization that educates professionals who work with seniors on a wide range of issues.

By 2026, Colorado will add 22,388 new jobs, increase economic activity by $4.4 billion and raise average annual household earnings by $608 if the state proceeds with the Affordable Care Act's expansion of Medicaid eligibility. These predictions are from a recently released report commissioned by the Colorado Health Foundation: Medicaid Expansion: Examining the Impact on Colorado's Economy.

Health care is full of acronyms. One of them is the APCD, or All Payer Claims Database. That's a mouthful that describes a simple goal – creating a system that will allow Coloradans to compare prices and data on health care.

Compiling and sharing this data is designed, in the long run, to reduce costs and improve the quality of care.

The debate over whether Colorado should expand Medicaid eligibility under the federal health care reform law has been a much-discussed topic for the past seven months. As a result of the Supreme Court's ruling on the Affordable Care Act last summer, the decision on whether to expand Medicaid lies with each state. And that decision ultimately revolves around costs and benefits.

In Colorado, Gov. John Hickenlooper has announced plans to proceed with the expansion, and one direct benefit could be job-creation.

By Kevin Simpson
The Denver Post

Colorado plans to expand Medicaid coverage next year to cover more than 160,000 additional low-income adults, aided by cost-control savings of more than $280 million over the next 10 years, Gov. John Hickenlooper announced Thursday.

"This is a step toward what we have talked about for a couple of years: How can we make sure we're making Colorado the single healthiest state in America?" Hickenlooper said.

Today, Gov. John Hickenlooper announced plans to proceed with expansion of Medicaid in Colorado as part of the Affordable Care Act. Beginning in 2014, Coloradans will be eligible for enrollment in Medicaid if their annual incomes are less than 133 percent of the federal poverty level – $30,657 per year for a family of four or $14,856 per year for an individual.

By Beth Potter
Boulder County Business Report

The clock is ticking for the Affordable Care Act to go into effect in 2014. The federal health-care reform legislation will require all uninsured Americans to buy insurance or face penalties as well as a host of other things. The new rules were passed by Congress and signed into law in March 2010.

There's been a lot of discussion in popular culture about health-care reform, and whether it causes existing health-insurance costs to go up or down.

By Mike Booth
The Denver Post

The state's share of costs for expanding Medicaid rolls under federal health-care reform could be $858 million over 10 years, according to new estimates from the Kaiser Family Foundation.