Experts from Commonwealth Medicine’s Center for Health Law and Economics (CHLE) advised members of the Connecticut state legislature about how the Basic Health Program, an option under the federal Affordable Care Act can be a cost-effective way to provide insurance to low income residents.
CHLE principal associates Katharine London, MS, and Robert Seifert, MPA, authored Evaluating the State Basic Health Program in Connecticut, on behalf of the Legal Assistance Resource Center of Connecticut. The brief explained the option and its implications for Connecticut.
“The State Basic Health Program option can give the state a way to provide comprehensive, coordinated benefits to low-income individuals in a way that’s affordable to those individuals and in a way that is also cost neutral to the state,” London said at the hearing on Jan. 31.
The State Basic Health Program option allows states to choose to establish a state program, similar to Medicaid, for certain low-income, uninsured individuals, rather than requiring them to purchase subsidized private coverage through the state’s exchange beginning in 2014.
London’s areas of expertise are in health care policy development and analysis in the areas of health care financing, payment reform, cost containment and quality improvement. Seifert has done work analyzing state and national health care reform, writing about MassHealth, Massachusetts’ Medicaid program, and assisting the commonwealth in efforts to improve the delivery and financing of services to people with complex health care needs.
Read more about their presentation on CT News Junkie and The CT Mirror.
