Tag: Affordable Care Act (ACA)

Awareness, Health, Healthcare Reform, Specialty Drugs
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Transgender Awareness Week

Transgender Awareness Week falls between November 14-20 every year and is meant to help raise visibility of a vulnerable and underserved community.  ‘Transgender’ is an umbrella term for people whose gender identity is different from the sex assigned at birth; ‘gender identity’ is one’s innermost concept of self as male, female, a blend of both, or neither. Transgender and gender-nonconforming people can face significant problems with accessing health care. Finding a healthcare provider who is knowledgeable of transgender health issues can be a hurdle itself; some healthcare professionals may believe that there is something wrong with someone because they are […]

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Affordable Care Act, Healthcare Reform
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ACA Open Enrollment

The Affordable Care Act (ACA; aka Obamacare) Health Insurance Marketplace begins its fifth Open Enrollment period today. American healthcare consumers can sign up on the federal insurance exchange at healthcare.gov or through their state marketplaces. This year, there is increased confusion and anxiety surrounding Open Enrollment due to changes (and attempted changes) made to the ACA under the Trump administration.   Previous years Open Enrollment period ran 90 days after November 1 until the end of January but has been cut to 45 days this year unless you qualify for the Special Enrollment Period, extending the enrollment period by an […]

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Affordable Care Act, Healthcare Reform
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Affordable Care Act Trumped

Donald Trump, President of the United States, has taken steps to systematically change America’s health insurance system. He has failed on his promise to pass healthcare reform through Congress due to lack of support, mostly from the destabilization the American Health Care Act (AHCA) and Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA) would have caused for premium costs and uninsured rates. The morning of October 12 he signed an Executive Order undermining the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and opens the door to low-benefit insurance despite lack of Congressional support. Later that night, Trump ordered an immediate end to subsidies to insurance companies that help […]

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Affordable Care Act, Healthcare Reform
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Changes to the ACA in the New Administration

In a previous blog post, we explored the proposed replacement for the Affordable Care Act (ACA; aka Obamacare) known as the American Health Care Act (AHCA). Since then, the bill has been indefinitely tabled after it could not secure the required number of votes to pass the U.S. House of Representatives. Prior to the new full law being proposed and pulled, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced changes to the Affordable Care Act exchanges. The new changes include some long-considered ideas to improve the law, including strengthening rules for those signing up for insurance outside the open-enrollment […]

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Affordable Care Act, Awareness, Health, Mental Health, Safety
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LGBT Health Awareness Week

The last week of March has been LGBT Health Awareness Week since 2003. We have gone over some of the barriers to healthcare for some of the transgender community in previous blog posts, but it remains important to bring awareness to the unique healthcare needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and the health disparities that continue to beleaguer the lives of so many Americans.   A report by the Institute of Medicine found that fear of discrimination causes many LGBT people to avoid seeking out medical care. This compromises an entire community of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender […]

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About Us

Welcome to the NeedyMeds Voice! We look forward to presenting you with timely, provocative pieces on healthcare reform, patient advocacy, medication and healthcare access, and other health-related news. Our goals are to educate, enlighten, and elucidate; together, we will try to make sense of the myriad and ongoing healthcare-related changes in the U.S. today.