2017
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The Medicaid Cap: Still a Terrible Idea for Children and Families
The Senate Majority Leader has announced his intention to take up the Graham-Cassidy proposal next week. The proposal has lots of moving parts. None of them are kid- or family-friendly. And one of them—the cap on federal Medicaid payments to states—is not only very unfriendly, but it will last forever. The cap first emerged in…
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Children’s Health Insurance Aid Might Run Out
Detroit News By: Melissa Nann Burke The U.S. Senate’s consideration of the latest Republican health care repeal bill might imperil the federal program that helps states provide health insurance for low-income children, including roughly 116,000 in Michigan. An extension for the Children’s Health Insurance Program is needed by Sept. 30, when current funding is expected…
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More Kansas Kids Have Health Insurance, But Advocates Fear for Future
Soundbite Services Kansas and the rest of the country saw the number of uninsured children drop to historic lows in 2016, according to a new report. The Georgetown University Center for Children and Families found fewer than five percent of children nationwide are uninsured. In Kansas, the rate dropped from 5.1 percent in 2015 to…
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A Battle for Children’s Health Coverage on Two Fronts
Modern Healthcare By: Shelby Livingston As Sept. 30 approaches, pediatric providers are grappling with the potential loss of funding for two programs responsible for huge gains in health insurance coverage for children. … The 36 states that maintain separate CHIP programs are not mandated to continue them, however. “They would start shutting down those programs…
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Arizona’s KidsCare Insurance Program at Risk, Again
Arizona Daily Star By: Stephanie Innes Without congressional action, a federal health insurance program that covers nearly 9 million children, including 22,000 in Arizona, is set to expire Sept. 30. And with debate and attention focused on attempts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) is in peril,…
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Maryland Gov. Hogan Rejects Latest Health Care bill to Replace Obamacare
The Diamondback By: Kaanita Iyer Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan on Tuesday announced his opposition to the new health care bill Republican senators introduced to replace the Affordable Care Act, citing the loss of billions of dollars to this state. A bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, will hit the Senate…
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Experts Say Most States Not Equipped to Take Over Healthcare
The Pittsburg Post-Gazette By: Kate Giammarise, Tracie Mauriello, and Chris Potter Advocates of the latest Obamacare repeal effort, the Senate’s Graham-Cassidy bill, have touted it as a way to give control of healthcare to states and allow for greater innovation. … “Governors are not magicians. They can’t create a good system when they are being…
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Graham-Cassidy’s Waiver Program Allows States to Erase Protections for People with Pre-existing Conditions
By Justin Giovannelli, Sabrina Corlette, Kevin Lucia and JoAnn Volk Legislation introduced last week by Republican Senators Lindsey Graham (SC) and Bill Cassidy (LA) goes about the task of repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) somewhat differently than the bills previously taken up by the House and Senate, but its approach is no…
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Medicaid Caps Put Children at Risk
Some recent health policy proposals have included converting Medicaid into a block grant and cutting funding levels. Policymakers that support these proposals are citing the success of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), funded by a block grant, as justification for the idea. In this analysis, CCF researchers review the role of Medicaid and CHIP in…
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Arkansas Would Lose $6B Under Proposed Health Bill, Firm Says
Arkansas Online By: Andy Davis Arkansas would lose $6 billion in federal health care funding over seven years under legislation aimed at undoing much of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, according to estimates by a health care consulting firm. … Marquita Little, health care policy director for Arkansas Advocates for Children and…
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Expert’s Weigh in on Jimmy Kimmel’s Understanding of Health Care
Daily Kos By: Laura Clawson Sen. Bill Cassidy’s response to being called out by Jimmy Kimmel was, as Kimmel put it in his Wednesday night monologue (video below), to “pull the all comedians are dummies card” by smarming “I am sorry he does not understand.” Too bad for Cassidy Kimmel really does know what he’s talking about—and has the…
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Jimmy Kimmel’s Take on Health Care
MSNBC By: Steve Benen It started in May. As regular readers know, late-night host Jimmy Kimmel spoke on the air about his young son’s heart surgery, and his belief that all Americans should have access to affordable, potentially life-saving, care. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) soon after began referencing the “Jimmy Kimmel Test”: for a health care…
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Trump’s Take on Graham-Cassidy
Vanity Fair By: Abigail Tracy Few Republicans, let alone most Americans, seem to know what’s in Graham-Cassidy, the fifth incarnation of the effort to repeal and replace Obamacare, though the bill may be on the verge of passing the Senate. There have been no public hearings, and no official score from the Congressional Budget Office.“If there was an…
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Bill Cassidy Interview on Fox and Friends
Fox and Friends … Fox and Friends host cites Georgetown CCF in question to Bill Cassidy. … Watch here.
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Fact Check: Sen. Bill Cassidy on his Health Care Bill Assertions
ABC News By: Ali Rogin, MaryAlice Parks, Meridith McGraw Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., has been touting a health care bill authored by him and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. Below are four statements by Cassidy about the legislation and our analyses of them, based on conversations with health care experts. … “CHIP does not regulate insurance markets,…
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CHIP Benefit Standards Won’t Protect Consumers in Graham-Cassidy Plan
Listening to the sponsors of Graham-Cassidy suggests that coverage for low-income individuals will be based on CHIP benefit standards and, of course, everyone loves CHIP, right? In fact, the proposed legislation does NOT ensure that Marketplace and Medicaid expansion enrollees will get benefits that are equivalent to CHIP in a given state. Nor does it…
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Children Would Fall Through Cracks if Graham-Cassidy Becomes Law
There’s much ado in the news today about what the “Graham-Cassidy” plan does with respect to CHIP. Two impacts of Graham-Cassidy on CHIP are very clear. First, by cutting Medicaid, Graham-Cassidy would undermine the foundation upon which CHIP sits. Medicaid covers four times as many children as CHIP, so cutting Medicaid by imposing a per-capita…
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Jimmy Kimmel Calls Out Graham-Cassidy for Failing to Protect Kids with Pre-Existing Conditions
It’s déjà vu in D.C. as the Senate tries again to pass a ACA repeal and gut Medicaid through Graham-Cassidy—a bill that’s arguably worse for kids, families, and states than previous attempts. Even as many have tired of the whiplash, it cannot be understated that this new threat is as serious as those over the…
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Jimmy Kimmel on Senator Cassidy
Politico By: Dan Diamond Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel ripped into Sen. Bill Cassidy on Tuesday for having promised to support health care legislation that protected children and helped the uninsured, only to craft a bill months later that Kimmel — and many health care analysts — say won’t do that. … “It’s hard to imagine…
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Children’s Coverage in Florida: A Closer Look at Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program
Florida’s uninsured rate for children, while still higher than the national average, is at an all-time low of 6.2 percent. This progress is the result of many years of work through Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. However, Federal funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) is due to expire on September 30, 2017.…
