State Healthcare Reform

Both chambers in Wisconsin have passed a $200 million reinsurance plan that would provide funds to insurers for high-cost patients’ expenses to prevent ACA marketplace premium increases in 2019. The Governor has come out in support of the program and is expected to sign the bill, according to the Journal Sentinel.

Minnesota has secured federal approval for its $542 million reinsurance program, which was created earlier this year via legislation (HF 5) and has been credited by officials with lowering premiums on the state’s health insurance exchange by 20 percent.

Voters in Colorado will head to the polls this November not only to cast their ballots for the next president of the United States, but also to determine whether they will become the only state in the nation to adopt single-payer health care.

More than 20 legislators from 16 states--many of them in key leadership positions on health or budget committees that deal with Medicaid in their home states--attended a CSG policy academy in Washington D.C. on September 21-23, 2016, to learn how states are making reforms in their Medicaid program that pursue the health "triple aim": improving the quality of care for individuals, improving the health of populations, and reducing per capita costs of health care.

Medicare pays between $16,500 and $33,000 for hip or knee replacements depending upon the hospital and geographic area of the country, but with a new payment program Medicare expects to save $343 over the next five years.

On Nov. 16, 2015, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced they would begin to make bundled payments for these surgeries in 800 hospitals in 67 geographic areas under a model program over the next five years.

A ballot initiative to establish a single-payer health care system in Colorado has been approved for the Nov. 2016 ballot. Supporters turned in 158,831 signatures and after reviewing a five percent sample, the secretary of state’s office certified Initiative 20, the “State Health Care System.”