Patti's Blog - Advocate for Elders, People with Disabilities and Their Families

Low Obamacare Premiums to Soften Blow for Those Losing Medicaid

Ganny Belloni
March 16, 2023, 5:44 PM

CMS will take active role during Medicaid eligibility checks

All states required to take 14 months to complete checks

One-third of the millions of individuals expected to lose Medicaid coverage as eligibility checks resume this spring will qualify for Affordable Care Act coverage with low or no premiums, a top Medicaid official said.

The Department of Health and Human Services believes the majority of those whose Medicaid eligibility will be redetermined will remain eligible, and the government is actively collaborating with states to make sure beneficiaries don’t lose coverage because of administrative issues, Daniel Tsai, director of the federal Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services, said Thursday in an interview with reporters

see full article at :

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/health-law-and-business/low-obamacare-premiums-to-soften-blow-for-those-losing-medicaid

#AffordableCareAct #DepartmentofHealthandHumanServices #CenterforMedicaidandCHIPServices #DanielTsai #Medicaid #CMS

The Role Women With Disabilities Play In The Women's Rights Movement (VIDEO)

Excerpt from: Progress Illinois (click for full article)

 

Recognition of the strides that have been made as well as the challenges that remain was the focus of a panel discussion held Friday regarding the role women with disabilities have played in the struggle for women’s rights.

Held by the disability rights organization Access Living in recognition of International Women’s Day, the event featured academics, caregivers and advocates who discussed the many issues facing women within the disability community, which according to UIC Professor Carol Gill have at times been overlooked by the rest of society.

“Women with disabilities actually have quite a long history of not being recognized as part of the population,” said UIC Associate Professor Gill. “We’re left out of programs for services, health initiatives, research, and policy, from domestic violence shelters to cardiovascular fitness programs to osteoporosis research to educational equity policy. We frequently don’t get counted, we’re not seen, and we’re invisible.”

It's Different for Girls with ADHD

Excerpt from: The Atlantic Wire (click for full article)

 

The idea that young adults, particularly women, actually have ADHD routinely evokes skepticism. As a fairly driven adult female who had found the strength to sit through biology lectures and avoid major academic or social failures, I, too, was initially perplexed by my diagnosis. My peers were also confused, and rather certain my psychiatrist was misguided. “Of course you don’t have ADHD. You’re smart,” a friend told me, definitively, before switching to the far more compelling topic: medication. “So are you going to take Adderall and become super skinny?” “Are you going to sell it?” “Are you going to snort it?”

The answer to all of those questions was no. I would be taking Concerta, a relative of Ritalin. Dr. Ellen Littman, author of Understanding Girls with ADHD, has studied high IQ adults and adolescents with the disorder for more than 25 years. She attributes the under-diagnosis of girls and women—estimated to be around 4 million who are not diagnosed, or half to three-quarters of all women with ADHD—and the misunderstandings that have ensued about the disorder as it manifests in females, to the early clinical studies of ADHD in the 1970s. “These studies were based on really hyperactive young white boys who were taken to clinics,” Littman says. “The diagnostic criteria were developed based on those studies. As a result, those criteria over-represent the symptoms you see in young boys, making it difficult for girls to be diagnosed unless they behave like hyperactive boys.”

ADHD does not look the same in boys and girls. Women with the disorder tend to be less hyperactive and impulsive, more disorganized, scattered, forgetful, and introverted. “They’ve alternately been anxious or depressed for years,” Littman says. “It’s this sense of not being able to hold everything together.”

Women to Pay Higher Premiums for Long-Term Care

Excerpt from: NCPA (click for full article)

 

With health care costs projected to rise substantially over the next decade, some women are finding it more difficult to afford long-term care insurance. With public programs already buckling under pressure to provide more long-term care, the burden could fall on Congress to address how the health of many near-poverty women will be provided for, says the Fiscal Times.

• Several insurance companies have announced plans to hike premiums by 50 percent for long-term health insurance.
• The state-run CalPERS located in California is planning on an 85 percent premium hike. Another company, Genworth, plans for a 50 percent rate hike and other insurance companies are considering pricing gender.

Elder Abuse Provisions Included in Violence Against Women Act

Excerpt from: ALFA (click for full article)

 

The recently passed Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 includes language that will help protect seniors from elder abuse.  The law provides $9 million per year in funding for programs which specifically aid women over 50 through the year 2018.

The funding offers grants that may be awarded by the Attorney General, through the Director of the Office on Violence Against Women. The bill states the grants will provide funding that can be used for: training programs to assist in the prosecution of elder abuse, providing or enhancing services for victims of elder abuse, creating or supporting multidisciplinary collaborative community responses to victims of elder abuse, and conducting cross-training for organizations serving victims of elder abuse.

The Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 was passed by the US Senate on February 12, 2013, and was later passed by the House of Representatives on February 28. President Barack Obama signed the bill into law on March 7.

According to the Government Accountability Office, reported cases of elder abuse have been on the rise, particularly the financial exploitation of seniors. Recent studies have shown that one in four Americans will be aged 60 or older by 2050, making elder abuse a growing concern for the future.

Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering

National Science Foundation

Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering (S&E) provides a broad base of quantitative information about the participation of these groups in S&E education and employment. A Digest highlights key issues and trends through graphics and text, and detailed statistical tables provide data on higher education enrollments, degrees, institutions, and financial support and on employment status, occupations, sectors, and salaries. Links to other NSF and non-NSF sources of data are provided.

Female Veterans Are Fastest Growing Segment of Homeless Population

Excerpt from: Colorlines (click for full article)

 

The Defense Department has found that about one in three military women has been sexually assaulted, a rate twice as high as that among civilians. Follow up studies have also found men and women who have faced sexual trauma in the military are now the fastest growing segment of the homeless population, with black females disproportionately affected.

Girls May Be Naturally Resistant To Autism

Excerpt from: Disability Scoop (click for full article)

 

In what may help explain why autism is far less common in girls than boys, new research suggests that females have a “protective effect” against the developmental disorder.

Statistics show that autism is nearly five times more common in boys than girls, but it’s long been unclear why the gender disparity exists.

In a study published this week, researchers found evidence to suggest that there is something about girls that’s warding off the development of autism, though it remains uncertain exactly what factors are providing that protection.

Researchers led by Elise Robinson of Harvard Medical School looked at nearly 10,000 sets of 12-year-old fraternal twins from the United Kingdom and Sweden, identifying the level of autistic traits present in each child. When they focused on the girls and boys in the study with the highest number of autistic traits, the researchers found that as a group, the most affected girls had more family risk factors for the developmental disorder, on average, than the most affected boys.

'Delhi Rising' For Women With Disabilities

Excerpt from: Planet of the Blind (click for full article)

 

The One Billion Rising (OBR) global campaign to demand an end to violence against women has provided disability rights groups an opportunity to bring the spotlight on the harassment faced by disabled women.

Access consultant and executive director of Samarthyam Anjlee Agarwal said on Friday that her organisation, which promotes accessible environments, had organised day-long events on Thursday to seek a stop on violence against women, especially women with disabilities.

She said the initiative has got the support of Delhi Metro which joined Samarthyam to make Delhi a safe, gender friendly and inclusive city by displaying digital flash message on violence against women in its train coaches and at all Metro stations.

In several places like YWCA, NDMC Connaught Place, Jantar Mantar and Parliament Street, Ms. Agarwal said dancers of Samarthyam and Ability Unlimited Foundation performed on the theme "Delhi Rising" on wheelchairs and in doing so showcased their abilities. The message that they had for women with disabilities was "Celebrate life, celebrate diversity and celebrate freedom".

Long-term care policies will soon cost more for women

Excerpt from: Reuters (click for full article)

 

The gender gap is about to get a little wider as the formerly egalitarian long-term care insurance market starts charging higher prices for women.

While life insurance has long been priced by sex, companies that provide long-term care insurance (LTCI), mainly used to cover healthcare expenses in old age or for severe illness, have long avoided it. But for the first time this year, they will introduce gender-based pricing, starting with policies from Genworth Financial Inc, the nation's largest seller.

The aim is to reflect actuarial realities - women live longer and prepare ahead more for their futures by buying policies. Genworth says two-thirds of its LTCI claim payouts go to female customers, and overall, women account for 57 percent of all policy sales in 2011, according to data from LIMRA, the insurance research and consulting group.