Nebraska health insurance

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status report:
Nebraska state health insurance exchange

What progress is being made in setting up its federally-mandated Nebraska state health insurance exchange?"

About state health insurance exchanges

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How did Nebraska officials vote on health reform?

H.R.2: Repealing the Health Care Bill

#14

Date of Vote: 1/19/2011 Status: House passed 245-189, 1 not voting

HOUSE|SENATE

1/19/2011--Passed House amended. Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act - Repeals the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, effective as of its enactment. Restores provisions of law amended by such Act. Repeals the health care provisions of the Health Care and Education and Reconciliation Act of 2010, effective as of the Act's enactment. Restores provisions of law amended by the Act's health care provisions. [more]

Yes (3)

• Jeffrey Fortenberry

• Adrian Smith

• Lee Terry

how healthy is living in Nebraska?

Nebraska is now ranked as the 11th healthiest state to live in, according to the 2010 America's Health Rankings® by the United Health Foundation. That's a marked improvement on the state's 16th place spot from 2009.

The good news:

• Nebraska managed to stay in the top five states with regard to its high school graduation rate, which, although dropping from last year's figure, is still a particularly high 86.3 percent of ninth graders graduating within the expected four years of high school.
• The state was also cited for having a relatively low rate of children in poverty, at 13.6 percent of the population under the age of 18.
• Other strengths include a low rate of air pollution, as well as relatively low rates of smoking and deaths due to cardiovascular disease, both of which have shown decreases in the past few years.

The bad news:

• Nebraska is in the bottom ten states for both rates of binge drinking (18.5 percent) and occupational fatalities (6.6 cases per 100,000 workers). (
• Obesity is on the rise in Nebraska, from 23.2 percent in 2005 to 28 percent in 2010.
• The geographic disparity of the state of Nebraska is 12.5 percent.

Nebraska's best and worst category rankings:

• Poor mental health days – 3rd
• High school graduation – 5th
• Children in poverty – 7th
• Geographic disparity – 33rd
• Occupational fatalities – 42nd
• Prevalence of binge drinking – 44th

more details

• See the United Health Foundation's latest findings on Nebraska.
• Trust for America's Health ia another source for key Nebraska health quality findings. In addition, 2010's federal health reform, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), included the creation of a prevention fund to provide more than $16 billion over the next 10 years to invest in effective, proven prevention efforts, like childhood obesity prevention and tobacco cessation, and the site has a report on how it impacts Nebraska here.

get local health results

State snapshot too large? Get county-by-county health rankings for Nebraska, from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Population Health Institute at the University of Wisconsin.

does Nebraska have a health insurance high risk pool?

Nebraska Comprehensive Health Insurance Pool
(402) 343-3574 or toll-free 1-877-348-4304 (M-F 8am-4:30pm)

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Starting in 2010, Nebraska started offering health care insurance coverage to residents through the federally established temporary high-risk pool program. To find out more about Nebraska's participation, click here.

Risk pools are state-sponsored programs to help people with a history of medical problems in their family to purchase coverage. These pools are for people who can afford to buy health insurance, but are not able to get underwritten in the private market because of a pre-existing health condition. These programs can vary significantly from state to state in price, benefits and number of people served. Often insurance companies doing business in the state are required to contribute to the pool to keep it in the black. In the best cases, they allow people to be able to switch jobs or become self-employed without the fear of losing their health insurance coverage. Read more about risk pools here.

how to find health insurance in Nebraska

Cover The Uninsured is a national effort to highlight the fact that too many Americans are living without health insurance and to demand solutions from our nation's leaders. Read more information on its efforts. It is a project of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

• Cover The Uninsured's facts on the uninsured in Nebraska and all other states.
• The Foundation for Health Coverage Education's guide on how to find health insurance in Nebraska.
• Materiales En Español – Guías para encontrar cobertura de seguro de salud.

Georgetown's Nebraska health insurance guide

Georgetown University's Health Policy Institute has researched and written state-by-state guides for finding and keeping health insurance. It updates these guides as federal and state policies change. A number of non-profit organizations help fund its research. Learn more about the Health Policy Institute.

Review Georgetown's guide for Nebraska.

Health insurance plan report cards for Nebraska

The National Committee for Quality Assurance is a private, non-profit organization that, among other things, provides health care plan report cards for consumers.

Go here to search for Nebraska health insurance plan report cards.

Nebraska government health insurance resources

Nebraska Medicaid – providing health care services to eligible elderly and disabled individuals and eligible low-income pregnant women, children and parents.

Nebraska Kids Connection Рhealth care coverage for qualified children developed by the State of Nebraska. It includes both the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and the Nebraska Medical Assistance Program (also known as Medicaid).