2011
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House Energy and Commerce Hearing Light on Substance
By Jocelyn Guyer The new Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee invited three of the nation’s governors to testify at a hearing entitled “The Consequences of Obamacare: Impact on Medicaid and State Health Care Reform.” As the title of the hearing suggests, the event was heavy on posturing and politics and light on illuminating…
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Which States Are So Eager for “Flexibility”?
By Martha Heberlein Back in January, a group of current and former Republican Governors sent a letter to Congress asking for “flexibility” to ignore the stability protections in the Affordable Care Act. Today, the Energy and Commerce Committee is holding a hearing that will focus, in part, on this request. Let’s look a little more closely…
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MEDICAID MATTERS: Return of the Medicaid Block-Granting Debate
The discussion of block-granting Medicaid has returned to the national health policy stage. This weekend, at the annual winter meeting of the nation’s governors, various governors resurrected the issue arguing that states need more flexibility than they currently have to fit their state’s budget and health care needs. Because of the populations affected and the…
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Medicaid Block Grant Would Leave States Holding the Bag
By Edwin Park, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities In a previous post, I explained why block-granting Medicaid or otherwise capping its funding is no solution to rising costs. It’s also a really bad deal for states, as a report CBPP released on February 23 explains. A block grant would shift significant financial risks and costs…
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Dairyland Dust-Up Goes Beyond Worker Rights: Medicaid Power Shift Also Gaining Attention
By Bob Jacobson, Wisconsin Council on Children and Families The eyes of the nation have turned to Wisconsin as an epic struggle drags on between Governor Scott Walker on one side and unions representing public employees and their supporters on the other. For readers who have been on vacation for the last few weeks: Gov.…
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CMS Provides Guidance to States on ACA’s Stability Protection Provisions
By Jocelyn Guyer Today, CMS issued a letter and a frequently asked questions document that outlines how the Administration will work with states to implement the Affordable Care Act’s stability protections. As readers of Say Ahhh! know, a number of Republican Governors have been pressuring HHS to relax these stability protection or “maintenance of effort”…
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Children and Families Protected from Governors’ Request to Cut Coverage In Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program In Guidance Released Today from CMS
Statement by Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute’s Center for Children and Families by Jocelyn Guyer, co-director, on February, 25th, 2011 “The Administration today released a clean, straightforward interpretation of the provisions in the Affordable Care Act. This is good news for families seeking to gain solid footing after tough economic times. The Administration’s action protects…
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Tapping State Ingenuity to Streamline Access to Benefits
Today, families in need of child care assistance, health coverage and food assistance often have to apply to three different agencies, providing pretty much the same information and documents to each of them. All the while, different eligibility workers handle this information to determine the family’s eligibility separately for each program. Placing such redundant and…
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HHS Announces Insurance Rate Review Grants
The Department of Health and Human Services just announced $200 million in grants to states to enhance their capacity to review health insurance premium increases. This is good news for families struggling with health insurance premium increases year after year. As Michael Miller of Community Catalyst put it during the HHS conference call, “families’ incomes…
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Eliminating Medicaid and CHIP Stability Provisions (MoE): What’s at Stake for Children and Families
The stability in Medicaid and CHIP can be directly attributed to the short-term fiscal relief and the federal requirements that states maintain their eligibility rules and enrollment procedures until broader health reform is implemented. If the stability provisions are rescinded, states could eliminate Medicaid for anyone who is covered at state option, as well as…
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Repeal of the Medicaid and CHIP Stability Protections (MoE): The Potential Impact on Children and Families
Washington– Health insurance coverage for nearly one in three people receiving coverage through Medicaid or CHIP could be put at risk if stability protections in the Affordable Care Act are rescinded according to a research report issued today by the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute’s Center for Children and Families. The report also highlights the…
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Health Insurance for 1 in 3 Put at Risk if Stability Protections Removed
By Jocelyn Guyer and Martha Heberlein We’ve just finished up a new report that looks at what might happen if the Medicaid and CHIP stability protections are rescinded, opening the door for states to cut off coverage for kids, seniors, people with disabilities, and other low-income adults. It isn’t a pretty picture – about a…
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How did Children Fare in President’s Budget?
(Ed. Note: Budget season kicked off last week with the release of President Obama’s FY 2012 budget proposal. The document outlines the President’s vision for the future by setting funding priorities. Say Ahhh! asked Bruce Lesley of First Focus to share his thoughts on how children and families fared in the President’s budget.) By Bruce…
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Insight from CBPP on Controversial Amendment to CR
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities released an analysis of the impact of an amendment to the continuing resolution that would bar the use of funds to implement any aspect of the Affordable Care Act. The amendment is being offered by Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-MT) to the continuing resolution now on the House floor.…
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CT Governor Helps Kids by Removing Barrier to CHIP Enrollment
By Sharon Langer, Connecticut Voices for Children Although Connecticut – like most states – is facing unprecedented fiscal challenges, and like other northeast neighboring states, challenging wintry conditions, there is some good health care news for children and families coming from the “State of Steady Habits”. Governor Dannel P. Malloy recently announced that Connecticut will implement presumptive eligibility…
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Arizona Waiver Situation Not Applicable to Other States
Governors from states considering balancing their budgets on the backs of their most vulnerable residents should not read too much into Secretary Sebelius’ letter to Governor Jan Brewer this week. HHS Secretary Sebelius did not waive the stability protection (aka “maintenance of effort”) provisions of the Affordable Care Act as Governor Brewer had requested. Secretary…
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Update on Efforts to Slow Implementation of Affordable Care Act
In early January the House of Representatives passed, with much fanfare, H.R. 2, a bill to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). Senate Republicans attempted to attach this measure to an airport construction bill but that effort was soundly defeated and it is unlikely that H.R. 2 will be passed by the…
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Early Innovators Awarded HHS Health Exchange IT Grants
Drumroll, please! For us techies (or techie-wanna-bes), the waiting is over. And the envelope says…Kansas, Maryland, New York, Oklahoma*, Oregon, Wisconsin and a multi-state consortia consisting of the New England states (sans New Hampshire) are the winners. The awards ranged from a low of $6.3 million for Maryland to a high of $54.6 million for…
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Just Say No to Arizona’s Waiver Request
Thanks to the more than thirty national organizations that joined CCF in expressing our opposition to Arizona’s request to waive the maintenance of effort provisions that are currently preserving stability in states’ Medicaid programs. Groups such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Easter Seals, Families USA, the National Association…
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Medicaid and CHIP Stability Protections: Consequences of Repeal
In the past few years, Medicaid and CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program) coverage for low-income children and families facing job loss, seniors in need of health and long-term care services, and people with disabilities has held remarkably steady. This is because the Recovery Act and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) have ensured that states do…