A 14-year-old girl accompanies her Somali-speaking father to his medical appointment. Because the clinic doesn’t provide an interpreter, the girl has to inform her own father than he has been diagnosed with cancer. She remains his interpreter through eight years of treatment, sometimes hiding information to protect him from the bad news. A group ofContinue reading “It’s a Matter of Life and Death: Insurers Must Cover Language Services”
Tag Archives: insurance
Let’s Block Too-Big-To-Fail Insurance Mergers
By LeeAnn Hall and Wendell Potter This article was originally published in Roll Call. If you thought too-big-to-fail banks were dangerous, watch out for too-big-to-fail health insurance companies. This summer, the country’s top insurers announced a spate of merger plans, lighting up the business pages nationwide. Health insurance giant Anthem unveiled its intention to absorbContinue reading “Let’s Block Too-Big-To-Fail Insurance Mergers”
Health Insurance Is Great – Navigators Needed to Help People Use It
This spring, Adriann Barboa and her colleagues at Strong Families New Mexico went on a five-county tour, fanning out across the state to share findings from the Breaking Barriers study they’d conducted on progress under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The report is part of a ten-state series by the Alliance for a Just Society.Continue reading “Health Insurance Is Great – Navigators Needed to Help People Use It”
Who’s Really Behind the “Voice of Small Business?”
*This article was originally published in The Hill * How much does it cost to rebrand a fee levied on health insurers as a “HIT on small business”? Well, $1.593 million, according to this exposé in the New York Times a few days ago. A little background: a provision of the Affordable Care Act levies a feeContinue reading “Who’s Really Behind the “Voice of Small Business?””
Public Campaign
This is the sixth part in a series of posts that will explore some of the leading organizations from around the country that are engaged in unearthing and combating the influence of money in the political process. Role in the Landscape Public Campaign conducts campaigns to improve campaign finance laws and to promote public financingContinue reading “Public Campaign”
A Victory for Health Care Implementation
Last week, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) finalized their recommendations to President Obama on how to implement a critical piece of health care reform: medical loss rations. Their recommendation is a significant victory because, according to the Washington Post, it largely favors “the views of consumer advocates over those advanced by the insuranceContinue reading “A Victory for Health Care Implementation”
NWFCO Celebrates New Health Care Law!
I’m signing [this health reform bill] for 11-year-old Marcelas Owens, who’s also here. Marcelas lost his mom to an illness. And she didn’t have insurance and couldn’t afford the care that she needed. So in her memory he has told her story across America so that no other children have to go through what hisContinue reading “NWFCO Celebrates New Health Care Law!”