2017
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Eliminating Essential Health Benefits Will Shift Financial Risk Back to Consumers
Congress is debating the American Health Care Act, a plan to repeal and replace parts of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The Act does not make changes to the Essential Health Benefits (EHB), ten categories of coverage that all new plans in the individual and small group markets must include in their plans. But the…
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What About the Data Needed to Calculate the AHCA’s Complex Medicaid Spending Cap?
There were few details in the recent CBO score on the American Health Care Act (AHCA) as to how the $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid were calculated and where the pain will be felt. That’s because the folks at CBO, like the rest of us, are scratching their heads over where to access the…
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Pence Campaigns For GOP Health Bill In Florida
Bradenton Herald By: Jason Dearen President Trump mentioned that the American Health Care Act will provide Americans the opportunity to purchase health care coverage across state, in a similar way to buying a car insurance or a life insurance. However, this American Health Care Act will remove almost everything that was achieved by the Affordable…
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Advocates Warn Rolling Back Medicaid Could Hurt Children And People With Disabilities
Watertown Daily Times By: Jen Jackson Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, only 2% of New York state’s children are still uninsured. Therefore, the Children’s Defense Fund New York reported the severe effects that the American Health Care Act can have on New York state’s children and their health care insurance, such as leaving thousands of children…
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What Does it Mean that Half of California Kids Are on Medicaid?
MedPage Today By: Cheryl Clark California has improved its healthcare insurance coverage, especially when it comes to children – since 5.18 million residents are under 19 years old. Joan Alker mentioned that even though this is true, they still have a lot of work to do – as do many other states. … California does “a…
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New CMS Administrator Verma Takes The Helm And Reaches Out To Governors On Medicaid
On Monday night, the Senate confirmed the nomination of Seema Verma to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) by a 55-43 vote. Verma, as Say Ahhh! readers know, comes to CMS from Indiana where she worked for then-Gov. Mike Pence as a consultant on the state’s Healthy Indiana program. As I expected,…
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Putting the Republicans’ Health Plan on the Obamacare Scale
The New York Times By: Robert Pear The Republicans have found a way to replace the Affordable Care Act, but the plan they have proposed still has many questions to be answered. Joan Alker, from CCF, mentioned that the plan would play out differently per state. … “It’s clear that the rug will be pulled…
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Sen. Price: Loss Of Billions In Funding Won’t Harm Medicaid Program
Modern Healthcare By: Virgil Dickson HHS Secretary, Tom Price, mentioned that states must have less flexibility in regards to their Medicaid program. Therefore, the new American Health Care Act proposed by the House Republicans suggests an $880 billion reduction on Medicaid funds between 2017 and 2026. … Joan Alker, a Medicaid expert at Georgetown University disagrees…
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How the AHCA Will Gut Medicaid and Devastate the Poor
Paste By: Eric Shapiro The plan proposed by House Republicans to replace Obamacare, American Health Care Act, intends to cut the funding that was used to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. However, Medicaid will not eradicate as easily as expected by the Republicans. … Joan Alker, the executive director of the Center for…
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Follow the Money: CBO Shows House “Repeal and Replace” Bill is Really “Cap and Cut” Medicaid
On March 13 the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) issued its estimate of the House bill to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act. The House bill does far more than simply “repeal and replace” the ACA Medicaid expansion for adults. It would end the federal government’s 50-year, open-ended commitment to all Medicaid populations — the elderly,…
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How the AHCA Yanks Welcome Mat Out From Under Children Eligible for Medicaid and CHIP
The Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) coverage provisions did not target children’s eligibility for Medicaid or CHIP. It was aimed at closing the coverage gap for adults – both adults without dependent children, who were generally ineligible for Medicaid, and parents, whose pre-ACA Medicaid eligibility was well below the poverty level in many states. Yet, we…
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We Just Got Our First Glimpse Of How Catastrophic Trumpcare Would Be For The Most Powerless Americans
Fusion By: Katie McDonough House Republicans released their plan to replace the Affordable Care Act. Paul Ryan mentioned that the plan is all about “giving people more choices and better access to a plan they want and can afford.” However, they will be spending less money, which will probably mean that less people will have…
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How The GOP Plan To Change Medicaid Punishes The Working Poor
Vox By: Julia Belluz and Alvin Chang The American Health Care Act, bill proposed by House Republicans, intends to replace the Affordable Care Act, but instead of increasing the number of Americans insured, it will decrease it – as it will take federal funds away as of 2020. … Special thanks to Medicaid researchers Joan Alker and Benjamin…
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Mick Mulvaney’s Misleading Claim That House GOP Health Care Plan Keeps Medicaid Expansion
PolitiFact By: Lauren Carroll Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, more than 10 million Americans have received health care insurance coverage. However, if the Congress repeals this act, and replaces it with the House Republicans plan, about 14 million people will be left without health care insurance coverage by 2026. … “States don’t have the…
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Cuomo: 1 Million New Yorkers Would Lose Coverage Under GOP Health Plan
Click Lancashire Independent News By: Olive Rios The House Republican plan proposed to replace the Affordable Care Act has been released, and it aspires to eliminate the current subsidies that have been used to decrease the cost of premiums in health care coverage. Basically, it plans to reverse Obamacare’s expansion of healthcare insurance, and it…
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A Field Guide To Medicare And Medicaid, And How They Could Change
NPR Boston Meghna Chakrabarti interviewed Joan Alker, to discuss the new plan proposed by the House Republicans to replace the Affordable Care Act. The new plan could leave about 24 million Americans without health care coverage. Joan Alker mentioned that some of the most important facts are that 40% of the children nationwide are under…
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How the Wrong Medicaid Reforms Could Devastate Young People with Complex Medical Needs
By Sophia Jan, Ahaviah Glaser, Rebecca Kim of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) Policy Lab Current proposals to simultaneously repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and reform the federal Medicaid program would be devastating to children and young adults with disabilities and complex medical needs. Even if the final ACA replacement plan continues to allow…
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ARKids First turns 20!
Originally posted by Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families. Twenty years ago today, on March 10, 1997, then-Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee signed ARKids First into law. ARKids was Arkansas’s state-funded health insurance program, and bringing it to life was a monumental moment for kids and families in our state. ARKids filled in the gap for…
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Impact of Medicaid on Children: Latest Research Findings
Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) provide health coverage to more than one-third of the children in the United States. The vast majority of these children, more than 90 percent, are covered through Medicaid. A large body of research shows that access to Medicaid in childhood leads to longer, healthier lives, a better chance to…
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Northwest Indiana Residents Run Into Problems With HIP 2.0
Northwest Indiana Times By: Giles Bruce A woman, Emily Kowalski, was pregnant, and had to switch her Healthy Indiana Plan to maternity plan, but she had a miscarriage, and got moved back without her knowledge to HIP Basic. Overall, it was a terrible experience for her, but now, the House Republicans are aiming to continue…
