A District Dime Twofer: Testimony on DC’s Health Exchange and Schedules for Upcoming Budget Hearings

Part I: Testimony on DC’s Health Benefit Exchange 

DC Fiscal Policy Institute’s Wes Rivers testified before the Committee on Health today at a hearing on the status of DC’s Health Benefit Exchange. The Exchange is being created as a result of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), and it is the portal through which small businesses and individuals can learn about and enroll in health insurance plans and access newly available subsidies to help pay for insurance. Enrollment starts on October 1, 2013, with coverage beginning January 1, 2014.

DCFPI testified in support of the District Health Benefit Exchange’s current effort to use stakeholder workgroups to inform the numerous complex issues that must be resolved before the DC Exchange starts to operate in October. Rivers also highlighted a few of those key issues, namely the importance of setting rules that result in affordable, high quality health plans on the Exchange,  developing a robust system to help consumers navigate the new process, and creating a sustainable model for financing the ongoing operations of the Exchange.

You can find the testimony here.

Part II: Fiscal Year 2012-2013 Performance & Fiscal Year 2014 Budget Oversight Hearing Schedules

The DC Council has published the schedules for two sets of upcoming hearings: agency performance and budget oversight. The schedules lay out the dates and times of the hearings for each DC agency to review their performance in fiscal year 2012 and fiscal year 2013 to date, to review the mayor’s proposed budget after it is released in March, and key dates for the FY 2014 budget season. Some highlights include:

• February 6^th: DC Council hearing on the CAFR (Certified Annual Financial Report’includes fiscal year 2012 surplus)
• February 11^th: Performance Oversight hearings begin
• March 28^th: Mayor submits fiscal year 2014 budget to DC Council
• April 8^th: DC Council hearing on fiscal year 2014 budget
• April 10^th: Fiscal year 2014 budget oversight hearings begin
• May 22^nd: First and only vote on the fiscal year 2014 Budget Request Act & first vote on the fiscal year 2014 Budget Support Act