Continuing Action

It has been one week now since we began to implement out political action plan to notify key stakeholders of the extension of insurance coverage afforded by house bill 440. We contacted the James Madison University Health Center, the Virginia Nurses Association, the Harrisonburg Department of Human resources, and the vice president of news at WHSV (Harrisonburg local news station). At this point we have not received responses from any of the above.

Because we still feel it is very important to notify key stakeholders of the impact of House Bill 440 on young people, our next step in the political action plan is to create a Facebook group that will summarize the implications of the bill and provide a link to our blog. Those following our blog agree that this will be an effective portion of our plan. In response to our previous blog entry, JMU Nursing wrote, “Facebook is an excellent social media outlet and a cost effective way to educate a large population of individuals about this bill and raise awareness of the potential benefits. I think this strategy is particularly valuable for reaching out and educating individuals about this bill since a large portion of your major stakeholders are young adults under the age of 26.” Indeed, there is a large population of youth within the Facebook network, which is why we feel that this will be an effective strategy of notification. Another measure we can implement to educate our key stakeholders is to send out a mass email to all James Madison University students, educating them on their right to extension of coverage. Jessica Downey expressed this idea in a comment on our October 21, 2010 entry. She also reminded us that prior to the passage of House Bill 440, a report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office stated that “the average premium for college-age students on the individual market [was] about $1,430." This exorbitant rate shows just how necessary and important the extension of coverage bill is.

As we have stated before, The Affordable Care Act allows young adults to remain on their parents' or guardians' health plan until age 26. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimates that approximately 2.37 million young adults will be affected by the new law, out of which 1.83 million are currently uninsured." (National Conference of State Legislatures, 2010). We hope that our efforts to educate the young adults affected by the new law will be effective in reducing the number of young adults without health insurance coverage, and ensuring that clients are able to receive affordable and preventative care.

Because our bill has already passed, we had to be creative in getting the word out about House Bill 440. We contacted the Virginia Nurses Association, the James Madison University Health Center, and the Harrisonburg City Department of Human Resources to educate them about the bill.

We chose to contact the Virginia Nurses Association because there are many nursing political leaders that are active in this organization. This organization needs to be knowledgeable about the bill since it is the nurse's role to educate and advocate for their patients. It is our hope that nurses will be able to explain these new changes and discuss the implications with their patient.

The second organization we contacted was the James Madison University Health Center. We chose this organization because with the large number of JMU students that will be affected by this bill, it is necessary that the JMU Health Center be aware of current legislation on insurance coverage. It is important for them to have the ability to answer questions students may have about insurance coverage after graduation.

Lastly, we contacted the Harrisonburg City Department of Human Resources. Through our research, we have learned that Virginia Employees are not allowed to add their children to their policies until the next open enrollment period on July 1, 2011. In contacting this organization, we are hoping to learn why this is. Additionally, because the Harrisonburg City Department of Human Resources deals with Harrisonburg residents and any insurance issues they made have, the Department of Human Resources should be prepared to deal with any issues that this bill may raise.

Our Political Action Plan to Support this Bill

As we have said before, approximately 30% of Americans between 19 and 29 have no health insurance. As seniors in college we will soon be adults in the real world and faced with challenges that come with adulthood. One challenge is being unable to find employment and therefore living without health insurance coverage. So in realizing the seriousness of this issue and how frightening it can be to live without insurance, we have decided to support this bill and the impact that it will have on our peers.

Because this bill just recently passed in Congress and has become a law, the goal now is to get the word out to parents of children under the age of 26 as well as their employers about the new availability of insurance coverage both for married and unmarried children, regardless of status in school. Not only are parents and employers key stakeholders, but it is also essential for the young people that coverage has now been extended to to know about this bill.

Political Action Plan

-Contact the Virgnina Nurses Association (VNA) about getting the word out on the recent passage of this bill, as well as how and if they think it will impact nurses.

-Contact the Harrisonburg Department of Human Resources about employee benefits and how the state of Virgnia is not allowing employees to add their children to the insurance plan until the next open enrollment period which does not start until July 1, 2011.

-Contact Ed Reams the Vice President of News at WHSV, the local Harrisonburg news station, about any previous pieces done on new healthcare legislation and whether this bill has been mentioned, as well as future pieces in the works about healthcare coverage in the state of Virginia.

-Contact the Business Manager at the JMU Health Center to seek advice about getting information about this bill out to JMU students and parents who seek medical services at the Health Center.

-Create a Facebook group that discusses the impact of this bill on young people, providing a link to this blog and invite all of our Facebook friends to join the group.

Key Stakeholders

-Young people under the age 26

-Parents of children under the age of 26 that provide them insurance.

-Employers: federal, state, local and private that provide insurance to their full-time employees

-Insurance companies in the U.S. that are now required by law to extend coverage to policy holders' children under the age of 26 regardless of marital or school status.

Impact of the bill

"Approximately 30 percent of Americans between the ages of 19 and 29 have no health insurance. This age group makes up 13 million of the 47 million Americans currently living without health insurance. The Affordable Care Act allows young adults to remain on their parents' or guardians' health plan until age 26. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimates that approximately 2.37 million young adults will be affected by the new law, out of which 1.83 million are currently uninsured." (National Conference of State Legislatures, 2010).

The objectives of this bill is to extend health care coverage of young adults who meet certain criteria and this criteria differs from state to state. This can decline the rapidly inclining rate of uninsured Americans. Clients who formerly would have had to either find their own health insurance or forced to opt out and have no health insurance are now secured for longer under their parents insurance. Some implications for this extension are discussed in a May 2010 issue brief of the Commonwealth Fund. "As new entrants to the labor force, college graduates confront hazards similar to those faced by high school graduates: difficulty in finding employment, health insurance waiting periods, temporary positions, lower-wage jobs, employment in small firms, and job turnover." (Collins Nicholson, 2010)

"Nearly one-third (32%) of uninsured young adults and 46 percent of uninsured young adults with chronic health problems reported that their condition worsened in the last 12 months because they did not get health care soon enough." (Collins Nicholson, 2010) This statistic shows the impact of this bill on clients being able to receive affordable and preventable care because insurance can promote clients to seek after health care before conditions worsen. Nurses can become educators and be involved in prevention as a this health care reform bill allows more access of clients to nurses and other health care professionals. The bill will also prevent the case managers to go through lengthy processes to locate resources for uninsured clients who would otherwise would not be able to afford the funding.

Political influences of this bill are impacted by each state as the individual states discuss who is able to have this extended coverage. The states are sponsoring the bill base the eligibility of people to receive this coverage on the state budget and so there is varying coverage from state to state.

House Bill No 440

The bill that we chose is “Accident and sickness insurance policies; coverage of children”, introduced by David J. Toscano, a Democrat from the 57th district of Virginia. It is House Bill no. 440, originally offered January 13, 2010, now referred to the Committee on Commerce and Labor. This bill has been offered to revise to §§38.2-3500 and 38.2-3525 of the Code of Virginia, concerning insurance policies. The proposed changes are relating to who is covered under a family insurance policy. Under the existing bill, children cannot remain on a policy past the age of 19, but the proposed revision extends the age to 26. Furthermore, the revision allows for the addition of “qualified children”, defined as individuals who would be treated as a dependent child of the insured member, who is under 27 years old and is not otherwise insured. Lastly, full-time students will be able to remain under their parents’ policy even if they do not live in the same household as the insured group member until the age of 26.

This change is important because under the current bill, many young adults are forced to live without insurance coverage. They can graduate from college and find themselves unable to find a job, and are unable to afford insurance coverage. By extending the age, more people will be able to stay insured until they are able to afford their own insurance.

Chosen Bill

Our chosen bill is:

HB 440 Accident and sickness insurance policies; coverage of children who are under age 27.

Here's the link:

http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?101+sum+HB440