HJN Health Care Reform SURVEY!

Help us better understand how to move forward with our health care reform work, by providing us with what you feel about health care reform in your community.

Click here to fill out the short survey

UCLA Center for Health Policy Research

Register Now! Feb. 8 Symposium on Health Care Reform

California’s health leaders to speak at Feb. 8 UCLA symposium on health care reform

Health care reform faces legal challenges and critical tests in coming months. California in particular has been a leader in implementing the first stages of health care reform. What is the future for this important new law?

For More information and to register click here

Should it Stay or Should it Go? ACA’s Individual Mandate

Report Examines Different Scenarios of Health Reform without the Individual Mandate

A new report released today by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation examines the effect that eliminating the individual mandate—the requirement for most Americans to have health insurance or face a penalty—would have on health insurance coverage, spending, premiums and uncompensated care. Read more…

The Health Law Goes Graphic

Nearly two years after the passage of the federal health law, more than 40 percent of people say they know little or nothing about how the law will affect them, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation’s latest monthly health tracking poll, published in December.  That figure hasn’t budged since April 2010, just after the law was signed.

Jonathan Gruber, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, aims to change that with a book, “Health Care Reform: What It Is, Why It’s Necessary, How It Works,” that explains the ins and outs of the law in an innovative way: an adult comic-strip form similar to graphic novels.                       Read more…

Speaking the Language of Improvement

New Paper Examines the Collection of Language Data by Health Plans

A new Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-supported study from the America’s Health Insurance Plans Foundation finds that collection of language data by commercial health plans, Medicaid, and Medicare increased between 2003 and 2008, indicating that plans are increasingly recognizing the need for such data. The paper published as a December web-exclusive in the American Journal of Managed Care. According to the authors, the plans most frequently cited the need for translation of materials, such as summary plan descriptions, health education materials, and benefit materials, as the reason for the collection of this data. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, approximately 47 million Americans reported speaking a language other than English at home, and 21 million reported speaking English less than “very well.” Limited English proficiency may affect patients’ ability to navigate the health care system, access preventive services, and obtain the care they need—contributing to U.S. health care disparities. Read more…

Governor Proposes Dangerous Cuts to Health and Human Services Days After Funds for Low-Income Housing Eliminated

On January 5, 2012, Governor Jerry Brown released his January Budget Proposal, which proposed significant changes to Medi-Cal, the California Work Opportunities and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program, and childcare benefits for CalWORKs and former CalWORKs families. These cuts come after several years of cuts to health and human services programs, including those signed into law by the Governor last July which enacted the deepest cuts to low-income families in two decades.              Read more…