As reported in Stateline, the Daily News Service of the Pew Charitable Trusts, there will be some glitches in the rollout of the Affordable Care Act coverage in January. According to Stateline, the new health care system is the largest social program to be created in the past 50 years, and the first step entails enrolling 16 million currently uninsured Americans into health insurance plans or an expanded Medicaid in three months. As described,
It has been three years since Congress approved the ACA, but many policy experts say that is not much time to get a program of its size and complexity up and running, particularly when there are so many different federal and state agencies involved. On top of that, the country has been recovering from a recession that crippled the finances of state governments, which were responsible for much of the nuts and bolts work of preparing for the new law.
“Nothing like this has ever been done on this scale,” said Cheryl Smith, a senior practitioner at Deloitte, a research and consulting firm. “People can make comparisons to Medicare Part D and to Medicare itself, but nothing this big has ever been tried.”
At MACo’s Winter Conference, we will hear a report on enrollment in the new health care coverage in Maryland. Representatives from statewide and regional organizations responsible for the coordination of enrollment will speak in a joint session sponsored by the Maryland Association of County Health Officers (MACHO) and the Maryland Association of County Human Services Administrators.
Report from the Front: Rolling Out Maryland’s Health Benefits Exchange
Maryland Health Connection, Maryland’s new health insurance marketplace opened in October 2013. Maryland’s six “connector” entities started outreach to individuals and small employers for eligibility determination and enrollment into Medicaid and other new qualified health plans in July 2013. In this session, we will hear a report on enrollment in to health coverage under the Affordable Care Act from representatives of Maryland Health Connection and a regional connector entity, and from county health officers and human services administrators working in different parts of the State.
Early registration for MACo’s Winter Conference is now open.