2017
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Republicans Race The Clock On Health Care — But The Calendar Is Not Helping
Kaiser Health News Back in January, Republicans boasted they would deliver a “repeal and replace” bill for the Affordable Care Act to President Donald Trump’s desk by the end of the month. In the interim, that bravado has faded as their efforts stalled and they found out how complicated undoing a major law can be.…
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Capping Medicaid: Bad News for All
As readers of SayAhhh! know, the House bill to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act does far more than effectively end the expansion of Medicaid for low-income adults. It also radically disrupts the 50-year old Medicaid partnership between the federal government and the states by capping federal payments to the states for covering all…
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Impact of Medicaid Per-Capita Cap Cuts Underestimated by Many
The American Health Care Act, passed by the House and now currently being considered by the Senate, significantly cuts Medicaid in two ways. First, the AHCA rolls back the expansion of Medicaid to adults with incomes below $16,643 (138% FPL). Second, the AHCA institutes a “per-capita cap” or limit on how much the federal government…
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Dialing for Dollars
Every few months Congress is looking around for money – money to pay for future expenditures, money to reduce the deficit, money to offset reductions in revenue from tax cuts. When Congress goes on such an expedition, they look around at many different parts of the budget – discretionary, non-discretionary, defense, non-defense – and try…
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Casey Says GOP’s Medicaid Cuts Would Devastate Pennsylvania Schools
Ellwood City Ledger By: J.D. Prose Proposed Medicaid cuts of $880 billion included in U.S. House Republican’s health-care reform plan would devastate funding for students, especially those with disabilities, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey said Thursday. “It rips away health care; it undermines health care,” Casey, D-Scranton, said of the American Health Care Act (AHCA), which…
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Casey, DiRocco Blast GOP Medicaid Cuts For Disabled Students
The Daily Item By: Joe Sylvester U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Thursday lashed out at Republicans for their health care bill, which he said would slash $880 billion from Medicaid, including funds that help students with disabilities. … Schneider, a professor at Georgetown Center for Children & Families who has worked on Medicaid as a policy expert…
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Further Evidence that Medicaid and CHIP Have Played Significant Role in Nation’s Success in Covering Children
Efforts to connect kids to coverage over the past decade were accelerated by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and are paying off big! A new report by the Urban Institute shows that the number of uninsured children who were eligible but not enrolled in Medicaid fell by 40% in just two years between 2013 and…
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Wisconsin Waiver Would Create Unprecedented Barriers to Medicaid Access
Wisconsin officials are seeking unprecedented changes in the state’s Medicaid coverage for adults without dependent children. The draft proposals (summarized here) would significantly increase the number of uninsured Wisconsinites, make the state less healthy, and impede efforts to increase the Wisconsin workforce. From a national perspective, the section 1115 waiver that Wisconsin is seeking would…
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Medicaid Per Capita Cap Threatens Children with Disabilities
Proponents of the American Health Care Act (AHCA),which both effectively eliminates the ACA’s Medicaid expansion AND establishes a cap on federal spending cap for the entire Medicaid program, often say that they are preserving the Medicaid program for the “most vulnerable.” The AHCA would actually do the opposite for the most vulnerable children on Medicaid…
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Proposed Medicaid Changes Would Put Medical Decisions for Kids in Hands of States Instead of Parents and Pediatricians
In a recent interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Secretary Price spoke about the efforts underway to change our health care system. In fact, there’s much discussion in DC these days about health care – who should have it, how much it should cost, and which benefits should be included. While there’s room for improvement on…
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How The House-Approved AHCA Could Affect Children’s Health Coverage
Becker’s Hospital Review By: Kelly Gooch The version of the GOP’s ACA replacement plan approved by the House of Representatives could jeopardize funding for children’s health coverage, reports USA Today. … With those proposed cuts, “there’s absolutely no way kids can stay out of harm’s way,” Joan Alker, executive director of the Georgetown University Center on…
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Trump And Congress Are About To Take An Ax To Children’s Healthcare
The Los Angeles Times By: Michael Hiltzik We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: In the ridiculous mess that is the American healthcare system, there’s one indisputable success — children’s health coverage. Over the last two decades, the uninsured rate for children under 18 has fallen from 14% to less than 5%. … Today…
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Proposed Changes to Medicaid Threaten Access to Health Care
In the 1990s, the Medicaid program was often discussed by policymakers as a secondary topic after dealing with issues surrounding Medicare and reforming managed care. There were several reasons for this. Medicaid was seen as a “welfare” program targeted at specific poor populations. The country still hadn’t yet experienced the deep recessions that would mean…
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Obamacare Replacement Threatens Kids’ Health Coverage
USA Today By: Jayne O’Donnell and Ken Alltucker Samantha Bailey spends her days in a Phoenix hospital room with her 19-month-old son, Henry, waiting for a heart transplant and fretting about his health care once he gets it. … With cuts anywhere near that size, “there’s absolutely no way kids can stay out of harm’s way,” says…
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Medicaid’s Special Importance for Children in Southern and Western States
We can’t say it enough here at Georgetown CCF – Medicaid is critical for delivering quality health care to children and their families. Our state, county and congressional district maps make clear just how important Medicaid is to children across the country, regardless of which elected officials represent them in Washington, D.C. Nationally, children make…
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The American Health Care Act: A Nationwide Diagnosis
Capital & Main By: Rex Weiner If put under a large enough stethoscope and asked to cough, America would appear to require an ambulance. Amidst a dark and gathering cloud of negative indicators, death rates for cardiovascular disease and drug overdoses are up nationally, according to the United Health Foundation, and adult obesity increased 157…
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The Passage of the AHCA: The Real Life Consequences for People with Disabilities
By Julie Ward, Director of Health Policy and Nicole Jorwic, Director of Rights Policy. This post originally appeared on The Arc Blog. They say that if you want to know about a person, look at how they spend their money; to know the values of a nation, the same is true. The current Affordable Care…
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Pediatricians Visit Capitol Hill In Record Numbers At AAP Legislative Conference
AAP News By: Devin Miller During the conference, hosted by COFGA and the AAP Committee on State Government Affairs, participants attended interactive skills-building workshops, heard from policy experts and leaders about child health priorities, and prepared for the advocacy task at-hand: urging Congress to extend funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and keep…
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Teen Girls Would Pay the Ultimate Price Under the AHCA
Bustle By: Jon Hecht One of the most prominent aspects of the health care bill is the $880 billion cut to Medicaid, along with changes to the program which would force states to cap their spending at certain levels. It stands in contrast to the current system, in which Medicaid covers all health care needs of…
