Dania Palanker, Senior Counsel

Dania is a Senior Counsel for Health and Reproductive Rights. Her work focuses primarily on implementing health reform and expanding access to quality, affordable health care for women and their families. Prior to joining the Law Center, Dania worked for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Starting her work at SEIU in the research department, she became interested in expanding access to health care to low income families and spent a few years as Deputy Administrator of a health benefit program at SEIU, working to provide affordable health insurance to previously uninsured low wage workers and their families. After the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), she worked on implementing the law as Associate Director of Health Policy. Her background in the ACA includes insurance reforms, coverage expansions and delivery system reform, with particular expertise in employer benefits and insurance reforms. She is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Expert in: Health Insurance, Health Care Reform, Medicaid & Other Public Funding, Health Care & Reproductive Rights
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My Take

States File Brief with Supreme Court Challenging Medicaid Expansion

Posted by Dania Palanker, Senior Counsel | Posted on: January 11, 2012 at 05:28 pm

Yesterday, 26 states filed a brief with the Supreme Court challenging the Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act as unconstitutional. These states are asking the Supreme Court to make an unprecedented decision that could leave 10 million women without access to medical services and could put countless civil rights laws at risk.

The states claim that the Medicaid expansion is coercive because, given state budgetary constraints, states can’t really opt out of Medicaid so they are coerced into covering the expanded population and not cutting back on current eligibility rules. But states can opt out and at least two states – including the lead state on the Supreme Court challenge – have publically considered the possibility. If a state chooses to continue offering Medicaid and comply with the provisions of the Affordable Care Act because offering Medicaid is the best option to provide health care to the state residents, that isn’t coercion. That is proof that Medicaid works.

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Tags: Medicaid, Supreme Court, Medicaid & Other Public Funding, Health Care & Reproductive Rights | Add new comment

House Bill Takes Away Promises of Affordable Care

Posted by Dania Palanker, Senior Counsel | Posted on: December 13, 2011 at 04:15 pm

With continued high unemployment causing increased numbers of women to lose health insurance coverage, policy makers should be trying to help people afford insurance.  They should ensure that someone doesn’t have to stop medical treatment because she lost her job.  They shouldn’t make it more difficult to access health coverage – but that is just what H.R. 3630 (introduced by Rep. Dave Camp, R-MI), a bill up for a vote in the House today, does. 

Reduce Financial Protections for Low- and Moderate-Income Americans who Receive Tax Credits under the Affordable Care Act

In 2014, the Affordable Care Act will provide tax credits to help individuals and families purchase coverage through a health insurance exchange.  Advance payments of the tax credits to help pay for insurance premiums (“premium tax credits”) will be paid directly to the insurance company based on information on household size and income provided to the insurance exchange.  Credits will be available on a sliding scale to help people with household income under 400 percent of the federal poverty level (about $88,000 for a family of four in 2011).

Actual income will often be different than income projected when a family enrolls in coverage.  People get married or divorced.  People lose jobs or get new jobs.  Some people work fewer hours than they expected.  Other people get promotions or bonuses.  Sometimes an unexpected cost arises – perhaps a large medical bill – that requires a person to take a second job. 

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Tags: H.R. 3630, Health Care, Health Insurance, Taxes, Health Care Reform, Unemployment, Health Care & Reproductive Rights | Add new comment