NASW Alaska | The Alaska Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers

Medicaid is the state/federal partnership that pays for healthcare to low-income Alaskans. For fifteen years, Alaska has relied on Medicaid to shift financial burden from the state to the federal government. Medicaid’s value to the state has been tested repeatedly. A recent study conducted by the Pacific Health Policy Group applauded the state for its efforts to focus funding on prevention and intervention services and it encouraged the state to continue in this direction. According to the U.S census, in 2005, 14.5 percent of Alaska’s children are living under the poverty level. These children and their parents end up getting primary care coverage through their local emergency rooms at a public expense of over six million dollars. Alaska has an opportunity to raise the income guidelines from 166% of the federal poverty line back up to 200%. This would allow more people access to preventive healthcare, eventually reducing public expense for emergency room care. NASW Alaska Chapter supports the re-instatement of the Medicaid program at 200% of the federal poverty rate. NASW Alaska Chapter supports full state funding of the Medicaid program and supports the state in asserting the federal government’s responsibility in keeping its end of its agreement with states.

Ensuring private coverage whenever possible

Alaska ranks 43rd among the states in the number of adults covered by employer sponsored health insurance. Health care benefits for domestic partners reduces the number of uninsured Alaskans. In the past 10 years, the University system has offered these benefits with minimal public expense. Fortune 500 companies have found this an effective workforce recruitment and retention tool. Domestic partnership coverage is not just an issue of non-discrimination; it is a health care issue. NASW Alaska Chapter supports health care benefits for domestic partners.

Medicare: Low rates and the Gap.

Medicare is a federal program that covers healthcare for senior citizens and some adults with disabilities in the U.S. Alaska’s elders and residents with disabilities who rely on Medicare are dealing with two issues that prevent them from care: low reimbursement rates for doctors and a critical gap in healthcare coverage. Seniors cannot find primary care doctors that accept Medicare. NASW Alaska Chapter supports public policy that increases the Medicare reimbursement rate for medical providers, that closes the Medicare gap, and that assists eligible Alaskans in meeting their healthcare insurance needs until the gap is repaired.

Ensuring critical access to hospital care.

Alaska’s current Certificate of Need program supports health care facilities to accommodate local need, whether profitable or not. The Certificate of Need program also monitors and contains institutional service growth in our state. Some would like the Certificate of Need program changed or even eliminated for selected communities, making it easier to develop health care facilities that provide services that are profitable. Such a change would make it difficult for facilities that would otherwise provide profit-making services as well as services that don’t generate a profit. Such a change may also drive the service delivery system toward unsustainable higher priced care. NASW Alaska Chapter supports the delivery of all necessary health care in all communities based on local resources and data supporting the need for services, regardless of community size. Changes in the CON process should be based in analysis of use, need and ability to sustain services.

A National Perspective

NASW seeks enactment of federal managed care standards that enable consumers to feel confident that quality health care will be available when it is needed and that reassure providers that appropriate clinical and preventive care is economical and feasible. NASW will work to protect program integrity, financial stability, and entitlement status as well as the prominent role social workers play in the Medicaid and Medicare programs, including long-term care. NASW strongly values protecting the role of social workers as providers in these programs, as well as the right of clients to be served by social workers. NASW also will work to protect the confidentiality of medical records and patient information.