Some Connecticut legislators are seriously looking into creating a Basic Health Plan for people who make between 133 and 200 percent of the federal poverty level, instead of forcing them to use the new private health insurance exchanges. From CT News Junkie: Over the next few months the legislature will have to tackle some tough [...]

Some in the California state legislature are looking to create a new Basic Health Plan as part of implementing the Affordable Care Act. The law give states the option of automatically putting people making less than 200% of the Federal Poverty Level in a state run Basic Health Plan instead of forcing them to buy [...]

The Illinois’s health care reform implementation panel has released its initial recommendations. They concluded that the private insurer exchanges created by the new health care law are likely to be a relatively bad deal for low-income residents, and that the state would be able to provide them better and cheaper coverage through a new public [...]

The Commonwealth Health Care Reform Implementation Advisory Committee created by out-going Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell recently submitted its report on implementing the new health care law. The committee recommended the state strongly consider covering people making between 133-200% of FPL (Federal Poverty Level) with the optional “Basic Health Plan” program added to the bill by [...]

Connecticut is poised to be on the leading progressive edge of what is possible under the new federal health care law by providing a rather robust state-based public option. If the state adopts the proposed SustiNet health plan (PDF) it would integrate the many different group insurance plans the state currently provides into a unified [...]

The subsidized private health insurance exchanges created by the new health care law are going to do a very poor job of providing affordable health care to the low income Americans they are meant to serve, according to a new draft report to the Connecticut General Assembly from the Sustinet Health Partnership Board of Directors. [...]

I’m still skeptical that Democrats will ever be able to find the votes to pass their current health care reform strategy. Their plan is to have the House pass the comprehensive Senate bill as it is, then pass “fixes” using reconciliation. With even the Democratic leadership basically admitting that there is no way out of [...]

Last week, Think Progress wrote a piece about how the media was falsely equating Cantwell’s “basic health plan” amendment with a public option. Since then, the problem continues to persist, so I think it needs to be addressed again. Politico has repeatedly referred to her amendment as a public option alternative, “quasi state-based public option,” [...]

Since last Thursday when Sen. Cantwell started calling her “basic health plan” proposal a “public plan,” I have been very troubled. Unfortunately, several media outlets have uncritically repeated her claim that it is a public option. I don’t dislike Cantwell’s basic health amendment. In fact, I think it has some merit even if it is [...]

Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) has an amendment which would have states create a “basic health plan” for individuals making less than 200% of the FPL, but more than 133% (the new cut off for Medicaid eligibility). The idea is modeled after the basic health plan in Washington state which has been around for about 20 [...]