January 18, 2011: SHARE grantee Ron Deprez has released a new issue brief that presents key findings from his two-year comprehensive evaluation examining the impact of Vermont’s 2006 health reforms: “Achieving Universal Coverage through Comprehensive Reform: The Vermont Experience – Evaluation Results.”
Dr. Deprez and his co-authors find that Vermont’s reform programs have led to increases in coverage, that premium subsidies have encouraged take-up among lower-income groups in the state, and that outreach efforts have been critical in promoting take-up among those who were already eligible for public coverage but not enrolled. The authors also observe that enrollment growth in the state’s Catamount Health program has been hampered by churning, and they warn that the state’s Catamount Fund is unsustainable as currently financed.
These findings have several implications for reform under the Affordable Care Act (ACA): First, ACA’s premium assistance and outreach provisions will likely play an important role in expanding coverage nationally. Second, Vermont’s problems with churning and financial sustainability foreshadow problems with churning between Medicaid and the Exchange and point to the need for additional federal funding for ACA implementation at the state level.
Read the new SHARE issue brief from Ron Deprez and his colleagues.