2017
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Michigan Medicaid Evaluation Has Important Lessons for States Considering Work Requirements
On Monday, a team of researchers from the University of Michigan (who are the official evaluators of the Healthy Michigan Plan) published a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) on the employment status of the adult Medicaid expansion population in Michigan. In a survey of 4,090 expansion adults, researchers found that…
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Senator-Elect Doug Jones Calls on Senate to Pass CHIP Funding
Jim Carnes is the Policy Director of the Arise Citizens’ Policy Project. Alabama voters are accustomed to the hot glare of national media attention, but not the warm glow. Doug Jones’ stunning upset victory over Roy Moore for Jeff Sessions’ U. S. Senate seat has cast our state in the most favorable light many of us…
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Advancing Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health — One Relationship at a Time
As early childhood policymakers and advocates, we know that early relationships matter – a lot. We know that babies’ earliest relationships and experiences shape the architecture of the brain. Babies who engage with responsive, consistent and nurturing caregivers are more likely to have strong emotional health, or, infant and early childhood mental health (IECMH). Most…
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Another state to warn CHIP families that insurance might end because Congress failed to act
ThinkProgress By: Amanda Michelle Gomez On Monday, Virginia officials said they will begin notifying families who receive coverage through the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) that the program will end on January 31st if the federal government does not adequately fund it soon. WAMU 88.5 reporter Selena Simmons-Duffin first reported the news. … “The bottom line…
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Health insurance for 1.3 million California children is in limbo
The Press-Enterprise By: Jeff Horseman Sofia Cortez has had her share of bad breaks in the past seven months. The energetic 6-year-old from Riverside broke her elbow while bouncing on a trampoline. Then came a broken pinky finger at day care. The federal Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, paid for Sofia’s medical care. “Thank…
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Anxieties Rise As CHIP Funding Deadline Expires
The Takeaway At the end of September, Congress allowed the deadline for refunding CHIP to expire. Replenishing funds for the program should be a slam dunk in Congress — there is usually bipartisan support for this program that helps kids — but CHIP still doesn’t have a funding plan, and the program is running on…
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Will Congress Leave Children Out in the Cold?
The first snow fell in Washington this past weekend. As I felt the chill in the air, I thought about the millions of children who get their health coverage under the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). For many of these children, the mercury is about to plummet. Federal CHIP funding expired September 30, but here…
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Tracking Medicaid Work Requirement Proposals
We here at Georgetown University CCF are closely tracking Medicaid Section 1115 demonstration waiver proposals as states attempt to create new barriers to coverage. There are many troubling proposals pending, but one of the most common is the imposition of a work or community service requirement as a condition of Medicaid coverage. As a reference,…
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What Does the Continuing Resolution Mean for CHIP?
I wish I could say that the Continuing Resolution (CR) passed yesterday by the House and Senate extended CHIP funding for five more years as both parties in both chambers have agreed to do, but sadly, it does not. The main mission of the CR is to avoid a government shutdown, at least for the…
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No Set Federal Notice Period for CHIP – States Decide How Much Notice to Give Families Losing Coverage
According to a new brief by the Kaiser Family Foundation, at least five states (Colorado, Connecticut, Texas, Virginia, and Utah) plan to end coverage for children enrolled in separate CHIP programs by January 31, 2017. One of those states (Colorado) has started to notify families that their children may lose coverage if Congress does not…
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Research Update: Checking Up on Health Care Utilization and Providers After the ACA’s Medicaid Expansion
This week, I am checking up on Medicaid research regarding health care utilization and providers. There is evidence that the expansion increased access and utilization of health care, led to an increase in smoking cessation, and increased the share of patients that physicians saw covered through Medicaid. Health Services Research’s Impact of Recent Medicaid Expansions…
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Editorial Boards Continue Calling for Action on CHIP
Newspaper editorial boards have been keeping up the steady drumbeat in their call for Congress to renew CHIP, which expired September 30. In Maine, the Bangor Daily News questioned “Republican priorities” in an editorial published December 8. Holding up funding for children’s health while searching for an offset would be especially cruel as Republican lawmakers…
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Republicans work up temporary plan to avert a government shutdown
Fox Business By: Brian Schwartz As House Republicans negotiate the finishing touches on a final comprehensive tax bill with their Senate colleagues, the House Freedom Caucus on Monday became a potential hurdle to avoiding a government shutdown ahead of the looming Dec. 8 deadline, FOX Business has learned. … If Congress cannot come to an…
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Wisconsin moving ahead with plan to drug test food stamp users
WLWT5 Gov. Scott Walker moved ahead Monday with his plans to make Wisconsin the first state to drug test able-bodied adults applying for food stamps, a move blocked by the federal government or found to be unconstitutional when other states have tried. … “The state could do far more to expand the workforce by investing…
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Research: Medicaid Expansions Help Parents, Children and Families Get Coverage, Afford Care, Reduce Debt
Recently Seema Verma, the Trump Administration’s director of Medicare and Medicaid, said that Medicaid provides “a card without care.” This line echoes state critics of Medicaid like Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin who recently said: “One of the most remarkable lies that has perpetrated in recent years in the healthcare community in America is that expanded…
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5 surprising facts the fact-checkers learned about Florida
Tampa Bay Times By: Allison Graves Every day, PolitiFact Florida researches claims by candidates and elected officials to sort fact from fiction for voters. … The rate of uninsured children in Florida dropped from 14.8 percent in 2009 to 6.2 percent in 2016, according to a September 2017 Georgetown Health Policy Institute Center for Children…
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Congress floats temporary patch for CHIP funding shortfalls
FierceHealthcare By: Leslie Small In its short-term appropriations bill, Congress has included a provision aimed at helping states keep their Children’s Health Insurance Programs afloat while lawmakers try to pass a longer-term measure. But that gesture may not go nearly far enough. … The center’s executive director, Joan Alker, also isn’t impressed by the CHIP…
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Will CHIP Funding Be Restored? Colorado Is Preparing For What Comes Next
Colorado Public Radio By: John Daley There are 75,000 children enrolled in Colorado’s Children’s Health Plan Plus. Each of the enrolled families has received a letter from the state advising them to consider their options, including talking to their provider about what alternative insurance they accept. … “This is not a good way to run government…
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More than a million children could lose their health insurance next year
CNN Money By: Tami Luhby More than a million lower-income children are at risk of losing their health insurance next year if Congress doesn’t act soon. Federal funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program ran out at the end of September. Though the program enjoys bipartisan support, it has still gotten caught up in the political…
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Medicaid and Work: How the CMS Administrator Has it Completely Upside Down
Work has a lot going for it. It allows people to support themselves and their families, it is a source of self-esteem, and — in a safe and non-predatory workplace — it is good for one’s health and well-being. In fact, encouraging work is one of the reasons that the Medicaid program is so important…
