Indiana Family to Family

Preparing for the 2018 legislative session The 2018 session of the  Indiana General Assembly  will begin on  January 3  and will end no later than  March 14 .  This is a "short session" were lawmakers will discuss a range of issues that likely have minimal fiscal impact because it is not a budget-making year.   Now that we have heard more from caucus leadership and the Governor on their plans for 2018, you can expect key issues this session to revolve around workforce development, education and the opioid epidemic.  View Governor Holcomb's  Next Level Agenda and look for caucus agendas and committee assignments to be released in the near future. Each year  Indiana United Ways ' volunteer Public Policy Committee gathers to discuss and plan our strategic policy priorities that shape our legislative agenda.  IUW advocates in four key areas: education, financial stability, health and strong communities/charitable sector.  Our primary efforts for the 2018 session w

Contributed by Terri Miller, Ph.D., IRCA Consultant We keep hearing statements like: "Our school has students with significant social, emotional and learning challenges. We want to support these students and their family members, but we often feel like we are alone in this support. It would be great if we had a way to work together with other agencies in our community." The purpose of this paper is to provide a snapshot of a systems approach that has proven to have long term, positive outcomes for youth, their families and for the communities where these families live. For the purposes of this paper, think of the school as one community agency working collaboratively with the other agencies in the community. First, some background: The concept of System of Care (SOC) was first articulated in 1986 as a framework and philosophy. This framework was designed to guide the mental health field to reform child-serving systems, services and supports to better meet

5 Facts About Signing Up For Coverage at HealthCare.gov: 1.        You must sign up by  December 15 .  Enrolling is easy but there’s not much time left before the   final deadline of   December 15  for 2018 coverage through  HealthCare.gov . Sign up now to avoid the rush. 2.        Coverage could be cheaper than you think.  Last year, 8 in 10 people qualified for financial help to make their monthly premiums more affordable. Most people can find plans with monthly premiums less than $75 and many can find plans with $0 monthly premiums.  3.        Shop and save - plans and prices change every year.  If you had coverage through  HealthCare.gov  for 2017, you should come back to update your information and compare your options for 2018. Every year, plans and prices change, you could save money by switching to a new plan that still meets your needs. 4.        If you choose to go without health insurance for 2018, you may have to pay a penalty.  Having health insurance is still t

  From National Family Voices: New development :  As reported in earlier Updates, federal CHIP funding expired on  September 30 . So far, states have managed to keep their CHIP programs up and running, but some states will deplete their CHIP funds soon;  Colorado has started starting to notify  beneficiaries that they may lose coverage. For this reason, Congress is likely to consider a  short-term fix  - passing legislation to allow the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to re-allocate left-over CHIP funds to the states that need it most urgently. This "band-aid" CHIP legislation would be attached to the must-pass "continuing resolution" (CR) needed to keep the government funded beyond  December 8  ( this Friday ). That CR is expected to last until either  December 22  or  December 30 .   Child health advocates, including Family Voices, sent a letter to congressional leadership on November 30, urging that they "move forward immediately

Two months past its deadline, Congress has yet to fund the Children’s Health Insurance Program, leaving several states scrambling for cash. USE OUR CONTENT This Kaiser Health News story can be republished for free ( details ). MORE STORIES TO REPUBLISH Lawmakers grappling with the failed repeal of the Affordable Care Act allowed authorization of the program to lapse on Sept. 30. Although CHIP has always had broad bipartisan support, the House and Senate cannot agree on how to continue federal funding. And the Trump administration has been mostly silent on the issue. CHIP benefits 9 million children nationwide and  370,000 pregnant women a year . It helps lower- and middle-income families that otherwise earn too much to be eligible for Medicaid. Like Medicaid, CHIP is paid for with state and federal funds, but the federal government covers close to 90 percent of the cost. To keep the program going, states with unspent federal CHIP money have seen their excess sent to

from the  Center for Public Representation: Because of technical issues with the Senate-passed bill, the House and Senate have to conference the bill.   That means that every bad thing in either bill is potentially on the table for being included in the final bill .  We expect that most of the conference negotiations will happen behind closed doors and that there will be a single conference meeting where the final bill will be voted on and approved along party lines.  The bill that comes out of conference will have to be voted on by both the House and Senate. The conference means that we at least have a few more days to keep up the pressure to kill this bill!   The House is voting right now (  http://houselive.gov/ ) on going to conference and the Senate is expected to have its conference vote  tomorrow  morning. House conferees were identified in a tweet this afternoon: NEWS: @SpeakerRyan expected to name the following GOP conferees for tax negotiations: 1. Chairman Kevi