Archive for March, 2010
A bit of good news on marital status in health reform
AtMP is seeking volunteers to investigate all the ways that the new health reform law may reduce or increase differences in cost of coverage for married couples, unmarried couples and unmarried individuals. If you can help, please contact us!
We confirmed one piece of good news today: adult children won’t be kicked off their parents’ health plans just because they get married! Over the past few years, many states have required insurance companies to let unmarried adult children stay on their parents’ plans up to a certain age (ranging from 24 to 29), but most states allowed the twenty-somethings’ insurance to be terminated as soon as they got married. This has been a source of poignant entreaties from young lovers barred from the alter by illness. Now, as the New York Times reports,
Starting in September, adult children younger than 26 can be added to their parent’s health policy. Some plans already extend coverage to adult dependents as long as they are full-time students. Although Health and Human Services still must announce the exact eligibility requirements, Congress deleted a restriction related to marital status.
“We may see a loosening of requirements around who qualifies as a dependent child,” said Jennifer Tolbert, associate director of the Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured for the Kaiser Family Foundation. “When they removed the requirement that a dependent child didn’t have to be unmarried, that was a signal to say, ‘We want this to a apply to a larger group.’ ”
This was so unexpected that we actually phoned the Kaiser Family Foundation for confirmation – and got it! KFF’s Chris Lee says that the reconciliation bill does permit married adult children to stay on their parents’ plans (however, it does not allow the adult child’s child (the plan holder’s grandchild) to be on that plan, and probably does not allow coverage the adult child’s spouse either).
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Mar 30th, 2010 by Nicky
Yes you count! share your love with the Census
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Mar 29th, 2010 by Nicky
Who’s in charge here? Could be you!
The Alternatives to Marriage Project is a 501c3 nonprofit organization, lead by a national board of directors. AtMP’s staff is small, so it’s board does a lot; if it were bigger it could do even more! We’re actively recruiting to grow our volunteer leadership team – click here for more about who’s currently on the board, what we’re looking for, and how to apply.
Examples of what various board members did in recent days: edited a membership email, evaluated listserve hosting technology, educated friends about the role of marital status in immigration policy, made a personal connection with a grant-making foundation, and reached out to potential new board members.
We’re especially seeking strategic thinkers and hands-on achievers who are, of course, 100% committed to the mission. If that’s you, we want to hear from you. If you know the perfect person, please introduce us!
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Mar 22nd, 2010 by Nicky
A more personal update on AtMP’s hospital rights initiative
So far, 2010 has been quite an exciting year for me.
I primarily worked on the FHCDA campaign and was thrilled to find out it finally passed, after 17 years! All that hard work paid off. To continue on with AtMP’s focus on hospital rights in NY, I am helping organize presentations at Callen-Lorde and SAGE where Nicky and I will discuss the FHCDA, the importance of advanced directives, NY’s hospital visitation law and broader, nation-wide health policy issues. I’m also honored to report that we’ll be active participants of National Health Care Decisions Day, April 16th!
Be sure to check out our hospital rights page that features an updated map on states’ decision-making policies. Thank you efficient Internet mapping programs!
Hope you all are also enjoying 2010!
-Jessica, AtMP Communications Intern
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Mar 19th, 2010 by Jess
Don’t like plus-one health benefits? Try minus-one!
In a jaw-dropping demonstration of what happens when institutions value their exclusive notion of marriage over everything else including health care, Catholic Charities of Washington, DC has announced that
Effective tomorrow, its employees will no longer be able to add a spouse to employee health benefit coverage. Spouses who are currently covered will continue to be covered.
Thanks to Professor Nancy Polikoff for bringing this to our attention, and for slamming it as unnecessary as well as cruel.
From an advocacy perspective, maybe there’s a silver lining: if more employers drop benefits for spouses and partners, there will be more couples throwing their political support behind single payer health coverage.
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Mar 4th, 2010 by Nicky
