2010
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Since You’ve Been Gone …
Having spent much of the summer in South America and without much access to American media, I was curious to see how things had changed when I returned to work this week. Hmmm. Not so good. Controversy over the health reform bill seems as rhetoric laden and inflammatory as ever as the election approaches. That…
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Statement on the HHS Secretary’s Connecting Kids to Coverage Challenge and New Data on Eligible But Unenrolled Children
(Washington, D.C.) – Georgetown University Center for Children and Families Co-Director Jocelyn Guyer issued the following statement in response to the release of an Urban Institute report that provides state-level data on uninsured children eligible but not enrolled in Medicaid or CHIP and the Department of Health and Human Services Connecting Kids to Coverage Challenge:…
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Kids Don’t Have to Wait – Connecting Kids to Coverage Event Makes Case for Enrolling Kids Now
By Jocelyn Guyer I had a chance to go to a fantastic event this morning sponsored by Secretary Sebelius on the Connecting Kids to Coverage Challenge, which aims to reach the nation’s 4.7 million uninsured children who already are eligible for Medicaid or CHIP. She made a compelling pitch that nothing is more important to…
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Data Helps Focus Efforts to Connect Kids to Coverage
By Martha Heberlein Most of you know the CPS – the annual social and economic supplement (ASEC) has been our go to source for health insurance coverage on a national and state-by-state basis for years. However, given the nature of the sample, analysis has been somewhat limited, especially for those smaller states and for those…
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California is Blazing a Trail on Establishing Health Insurance Exchange Under ACA
By Mike Odeh (Children Now) and Kristen Golden Testa (The Children’s Partnership) with the 100% Campaign And we’re off! Implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is officially underway! Less than six months after Congress passed the ACA, California has blazed the trail as the first state in the nation to create a statewide Health Insurance…
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HHS Listening Session Promotes Transparency & Provides Rich Dialogue With Stakeholders
By Jocelyn Guyer It used to be that late August in Washington, D.C. was the perfect time to clean the junk out of your office, delete old emails, and go to the dentist. Now, though, the high energy folks in the Obama Administration charged with implementing health reform are bringing yet more change to Washington,…
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Health Insurance Exchanges: New Coverage Options for Children and Families
A key feature of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) is state-based “exchanges.” These new health insurance marketplaces are designed to provide uninsured (and in some cases underinsured) individuals and small businesses with the ability to purchase affordable health insurance coverage for themselves and their employees respectively. States that establish and operate exchanges…
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Exchanges are Critical to Success of Affordable Care Act
Health care “exchanges” are critical to fulfilling the promise of the Affordable Care Act and how states decide to meet their responsibility to establish them will have an enormous impact on children and families. Today, the Department of Health and Human Services is hosting a stakeholder conference to discuss exchanges. To coincide with the conference, my colleagues,…
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Group of State Medicaid Directors Creates New Association
By Jocelyn Guyer After two weeks in New Hampshire and Maine and a few extra cups of coffee to get moving, I returned from vacation yesterday to find this very interesting development in my inbox – the nation’s Medicaid directors are breaking away from the American Public Human Services Association to start their own independent…
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CMS Releases Guidance on the Extension of Enhanced FMAP Funding
By Martha Heberlein On August 10th, President Obama signed an extension of the state fiscal relief first authorized under ARRA. Under the extension, states will continue to receive a phased-out increase in their federal Medicaid matching rate through June of 2011, as opposed to it expiring at the end of this year. CMS released guidance…
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Three Cheers for Dependent Coverage Expansion!
By Patrick Tigue, New England Alliance for Children’s Health While there are many provisions in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that will benefit children and families, the expansion of dependent coverage to children up to age 26 is among the most important – especially in the short-term. In 2011 alone, as many as 1.64 million…
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Location Matters
By Martha Heberlein I know I’ve said it dozens of times – states are different. Like people themselves, they have their own characteristics, quirks, and personalities that make them unique. But what about within states – are there differences of note? Why, of course (I’m sure we can all think of a long list of…
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Getting Kids Covered and in the Game
Last week, Cindy Mann blogged about the importance of kids’ coverage on healthcare.gov. “As back-to-school time approaches, families are thinking about making sure their children have every opportunity to learn. Now is also the time to make sure that kids have the coverage they need to be healthy – the first step to a successful…
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CCF & Kaiser Identify Key Issues for Policymakers to Consider for Newly Eligible Medicaid Beneficiaries
Under the Affordable Care Act, states will have considerable flexibility, within federal guidelines, to design Medicaid benefit packages and cost-sharing rules that are appropriate for newly-eligible adult beneficiaries. The often-extensive health care needs and very low incomes of the newly-eligible adults are important considerations for states as they put the new law into effect, according…
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Extension of Medicaid Relief Clears Last Hurdle in Congress
By Joe Touschner We’ve been following for some time the inconsistent progress of legislation that would extend increased federal Medicaid payments to states. While versions of the legislation have previously passed both houses of Congress, the two chambers had not succeeded in making the extension law by agreeing to the same bill. Today, they have,…
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Explaining Health Reform: Benefits and Cost-Sharing for Adult Medicaid Beneficiaries
By Jocelyn Guyer Under health reform, Medicaid eligibility will be expanded to reach nearly everyone under age 65 with income below 133 percent of the federal poverty level. As a result, millions of uninsured adults, including many with very low income and significant health needs, will become eligible for the program. This brief provides details…
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Senate Approves Enhanced Medicaid Funding; House Expected to Act Next Week
With the Senate’s approval today to extend the enhanced Medicaid matching rate (aka FMAP) until June 30, 2011, cash-strapped states and their most vulnerable residents can rest a bit easier. This measure will now return to the House of Representatives where it is expected to be approved next week. As the bipartisan National Governors’ Association (NGA)…
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Get Covered: Get In the Game Initiative is a Great Idea
By Suzanne Schlattman, Maryland Citizens’ Health Initiative Education Fund, Inc. This week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the Get Covered. Get in the Game initiative which will be launched in seven pilot states across the country including: Colorado, Florida, Maryland, New York, Oregon, Ohio and Wisconsin. The initiative brings together coaches, schools, and communities to educate families with children…
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Home Visiting Program – Another Early Win for Children in Affordable Care Act
By Tom Birch, National Child Abuse Coalition For the first time, with the passage of health care reform in March, federal funding will be available to states to support a range of voluntary home visitation services to pregnant women, young parents and their children, designed to improve maternal and child health, foster healthy child development,…
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FPL Guidelines Remain Unchanged for 2010
By Martha Heberlein For all those wondering what was going on with the 2010 federal poverty level, your answer arrived today in the Federal Register. But while I have your attention, here’s the back-story. A decline in the average CPI-U during 2009 would have required HHS to issue poverty guidelines in 2010 that were actually…