ACA Sign Ups and Tax Credits in Utah Fact Sheet

CMS FACT SHEET: AFFORDABLE CARE ACT IN Utah

as of March 3, 2015

-At the end of Open Enrollment on February 15, 140,221 Utah consumers had selected a plan or were automatically re-enrolled in Marketplace coverage.

-88 percent of Utah consumers who were signed up as of January 30 qualify for an average tax credit of $159 per month through the Marketplace.

-As of January 30, in the 37 States using the HealthCare.gov platform, the average advance premium tax credit covers about 72 percent (or $268) of the gross premium, and tax credits will reduce premium costs across the 37 States by over $1 billion a month. 

-In the final day of Open Enrollment, more new consumers signed up for health coverage than any other day this open enrollment or last. 

-82 percent of Utah Marketplace enrollees as of December 2014 could have obtained coverage for $100 or less after any applicable tax credits in 2015.

-Utah consumers could choose from an average of 69 health plans in their county for 2015 coverage – up from 55 in 2014. 

Read more at http://www.hhs.gov/healthcare/facts/blog/2015/02/open-enrollment-week-thirteen.html

U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, visits Utah

Newly confirmed U.S. Surgeon General,  Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, MD, MBA visited Utah yesterday with a stop at the YMCA Community Family Center in Taylorsville. Dr. Murthy is conducting a nationwide "listening tour" to hear the concerns and issues from health care leaders in all 50 states in order to gain public input to better inform decisions about future initiatives and programming. Attendees were impressed that rather than start off his tenure with a big, exciting national initiative or "declaration of war" against a disease, he wanted to get input from communities and find ways to collaborate and have collective impact. 

Pictured left to right: Jake Fitisemanu, UDOH Office of Health Disparities, Dr. Vivek Murthy,US Surgeon General, and Daela Taeoali'i-Higgs, SelectHealth

In attendance were leaders from state and local health departments, health care plans and providers.  A local resident shared his personal story of being uninsured for most of his life and the relief of finally being covered through a new Marketplace health plan.

Dr. Murthy was nominated by President Obama in November 2013 and confirmed on December 15, 2014 as the 19th United States Surgeon General.  Dr Murthy is the youngest and first Indian American to serve as Surgeon General.

New poll asks "What Shapes Health"?

When you ask people what impacts health you'll get a lot of different answers: Access to good health care and preventative services, personal behavior, exposure to germs or pollution and stress. But if you dig a little deeper you'll find a clear dividing line, and it boils down to one word: money.

People whose household income is more than $75,000 a year have very different perceptions of what affects health than those whose household income is less than $25,000. This is one key finding in a poll conducted by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. One third of respondents who are low income say lack of money has a harmful effect on health.

One in 5 people in our poll say they are in a similar position — low paying jobs or unemployment harms their health. And there's research to back this up. Kate Strully, a sociologist at the University at Albany, State University of New York, studied what happened when healthy people were laid off following a plant closing. She found that losing a job increased the odds of developing stress-related health conditions by 83 percent — conditions like stroke, heart disease, diabetes and emotional or psychiatric conditions.

Another social fact that affects health is housing. Forty percent of the low-income people in our poll say bad housing causes bad health. Uzuri Pease-Greene says this is true for her family. She rents a small two-bedroom apartment with her husband, two daughters and a grandchild in a public housing complex in San Francisco. When something breaks, she says it takes years to get it fixed. Ovens don't work, there are holes in the walls, the water doesn't work or there's a sewage backup.

The impact of childhood experiences on adult health is another surprising finding in our poll. More than any other factor in childhood, people say abuse and neglect contribute to poor health in adults. 

Read What Shapes Health Report.

Utah Farmworker Resources

In the last 3 years, Utah's farms have experienced labor shortages. Futures Through Training is working with the Farm Bureau and the Utah Department of Workforce Services to encourage farm workers to move to Utah.

As part of this effort, Futures Through Training wants to ensure Utah's future farmers and farm workers know where they can go for help if they need any when they get here. Please fill out this Google form https://docs.google.com/a/utah.gov/forms/d/1vTPlC6_2g7j-jHJWoyL_XQ46cr0OcHmP-mHQjbqvWvQ/viewform?c=0&w=1 if you have services that may be of assistance to farm workers.  We are in need of more food pantries, ESL providers, housing assistance, and other basic needs providers.

This information will be used to publicize the resources that are available to farm workers and their families when they move to Utah. If you would like to be included as a resource, please complete and submit the following information in this Google form:

Agency Name
Program Name
Website
Please cut and paste the address exactly as it appears on your website. Example: http://www.futuresthroughtraining.org/index.php/en/farmworker-program
Phone Number 
farmworkers Can Call To Talk To A Human Being - NOT A MACHINE, Please use this format: 801-394-9774 ext. 18
Address 
Where Farmworkers Can Go For Service:  Example: 1140 East 36th Street, Suite 150, Ogden, Utah 84403
How Can This Program Help Farmworkers & Their Dependents: 
Summarize the services your program can assist with. Example: Employment and Training Services Including: Career Counseling; Paying for ESL, Education, Computer, & Training Costs;Teaching Job Searching, Interviewing & Employment Skills.
Basic Eligibility Requirements: 
Briefly summarize important requirements for participation in your program. Example: Applicants must have a legal right to work in the US, a valid social security card, and during the past 2 years, must have been working in agriculture for more than half of their time or income. Dependents who have not worked in agriculture can qualify if someone in the family has been working in agriculture. The household must meet the income limits as listed at www.FuturesThroughTraining.org
Languages that Services are Available In
List All Available Languages. Example: English, Spanish, German, American Sign Language and Khmer. Translators are available for Chuukese, Thai, Burmese, Karyn 1, and Karyn 2. Other translators can be acquired for Farmworkers & Dependents who speak other languages.
Area(s) of Utah Where Services Can Be Accessed
List All Places This Program Serves. Example #1: Only Utah County; Example #2: Walk-in services in Ogden, but Career Advisers will travel ANYWHERE in Utah if a Farmworker requests services.
Email Address Of Person Submitting Form
Please complete a separate form for each program or for different locations. 
Example #1: USOE has different school districts operating the Migrant Ed Program. Each school district should be on it's own form. 
Example #2: CHC has clinics in 7 locations. Each clinic that can help Farmworkers should be on it's own form.

For more information contact Corrie at ExplorerCor@aol.com or www.FuturesThroughTraining.org

White House Announces Every Kid in a Park Initiative

Every fourth-grader in America will receive a pass in September for a free year of family visits to every National Park in the United States, per a new Every Kids in a Park initiative announced by the White House. The initiative—part of a lead-up to the centennial anniversary of the National Park System in 2016—is designed in part to encourage children to enjoy outdoor recreation and physical activity opportunities.   

Crowdsourced contest promoting home visiting begins today!

Voices for Utah Children has launched an exciting online crowdsourced contest to find out what types of support new and expecting parents in Utah want the most. The challenge, run in partnership with the national online advocacy platform SparkAction, is an opportunity to learn more about the needs of Utah parents in their own words and to help urge the Utah Legislature and U.S. Congress to continue funding evidence-based home visiting programs such as Nurse Family Partnership to serve high risk, low-income first time mothers in Utah.

The contest simply asks parents to share a photo and their  answer to the question, "If a baby expert visited you, what help would you want?" Anyone who visits the website can vote for their favorites. The entry with the most votes  will win a night of free babysitting and dinner and a movie. The contest and all the information is at utahchildren.org/4UTparents.

We hope you can help us spread the word to your networks of new and expecting parents or professionals and advocates who serve new and expecting parents.
To save you work, we have created sample social media posts, e-newsletter blurbs, images and links that can simply be copied and pasted onto your platforms and websites, available here: http://www.utahchildren.org/about-us/projects/item/567

Will you please spread the word to your networks?
The contest begins today and ends on March 12, 2015. Please help Utah parents be heard and help us raise awareness of evidence-based home visiting.

Enrollment America releases State of Enrollment Report

In this report, you'll find important lessons learned from the second open enrollment period, based on the latest data from the outreach campaign that contacted more than 6 million consumers.

Click here to read the report.
Now that an estimated 11.4 million Americans are enrolled in marketplace coverage, plus millions more in Medicaid and CHIP, it's time to reflect on the strategies that can make even more progress possible.
In the report, you'll learn about the latest findings on the "science of enrollment,"including:

• Which messages motivated the uninsured to start the enrollment process.

• What tools and outreach strategies make consumers more likely to successfully enroll.

• Why year-round outreach is critical to enrollment success.

• How tax time is a prime opportunity to encourage enrollment.

• Where the uninsured rate has already fallen the farthest.

 
Click here to read the State of Enrollment report and learn more about best practices that everyone involved in enrollment can replicate in the future.

Millions more Americans can still benefit from financial help to get covered, but only if partners like you, in communities around the country, continue this important work in the years to come.