2017
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Congressional Leaders Signal They Intend to Kick the Can Down the Road on CHIP
It appears that Congress is planning to kick the can further down the road rather than finally approve the bipartisan plan to fund the Children’s Health Insurance Program this week. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Walden has signaled that he wants to allow CMS to shift unused CHIP funding (currently reserved for states that are…
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Tens of thousands Native children stand to lose healthcare
Crosscut By: Mark Trahant Congress has yet to reenact the Children’s Health Insurance Program and states will soon run out of funds to prop up the program. That will mean that thousands of American Indian and Alaska Native children will lose their health insurance. The result is the Indian Health Service will have to stretch…
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States — And 9M Kids — ‘In A Bind’ As Congress Dawdles On CHIP Funding
Kaiser Health News By: Ashley Lopez, Selena Simmons-Duffin Last week, Colorado became the first state to notify families that children who receive health insurance through the Children’s Health Insurance Program are in danger of losing their coverage. … Joan Alker, who runs the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, said most states need to give families…
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Abrupt Medicaid shift won’t cause loss of services, UnitedHealthcare leader vows
Des Moines Register By: Tony Leys This week’s departure of Iowa’s largest Medicaid management firm shouldn’t cause poor or disabled Iowans to suddenly lose health-care services, the leader of the main remaining company said. “We’re honoring those services on Day One. Those services will continue,” said Kim Foltz, Iowa chief executive officer of UnitedHealthcare. ……
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Millions of Kids Are About to Lose Their Health Insurance Because Congress Won’t Do Its Job
Mother Jones By: Edwin Rios In September, Congress let expire the Children’s Health Insurance Program, a bipartisan-backed program that covers millions of low-income kids whose families earn too much to qualify for Medicaid. First created in 1997 under President Bill Clinton, CHIP provides health insurance for routine checkups, doctors’ appointments, and hospital care for nearly 9…
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Key lawmaker seeks flexibility for states on CHIP
The Hill By: RACHEL ROUBEIN AND JESSIE HELLMANN The chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee is working to lift a restriction on how much money states can get to keep their Children’s Health Insurance Programs (CHIP) running, as Congress works to reauthorize the program that lapsed Sept. 30. … Advocates are frustrated that Congress…
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The Health 202: Will CHIP crumble? States are getting really nervous.
Washington Post By: Paige Winfield Cunningham Congress is perfectly illustrating a potential pitfall with the GOP’s idea of capping Medicaid spending. Just look at how it’s neglecting another federal program that covers low-income children. Never have lawmakers let funding lapse so long for the Children’s Health Insurance Program, a uniquely bipartisan U.S. safety net program that covers about…
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Kansas and Mississippi Medicaid Waivers Race to the Bottom: Most Vulnerable Families Targeted by Harmful Proposal
Medicaid is a critical part of health insurance coverage in the US, covering millions of children and their parents, seniors and individuals with disabilities. More than half of states have taken the Affordable Care Act option to expand Medicaid coverage to more low-income parents and childless adults. But some states are trying to move in…
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Want kids to get preventive health care? Make sure their parents have health coverage.
If we’ve learned anything this year, it’s that we can’t take success covering children for granted. A lapse in CHIP funding (ahem!) or cuts to Medicaid could easily put our nation back in a place where rates of uninsured kids reverse course. But even as we work to keep the coverage we have, we also…
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Nightmare before Christmas: 32,000 local children face losing health insurance
Star-Telegram By: Bud Kennedy More than 32,000 of our children are about to get bad news for Christmas. Along with greeting cards and gifts sent by relatives, they’ll find a letter in the mailbox Dec. 22 saying Texas and the U.S. have canceled their health coverage. … “It’s terrible news for any parent to get in December — that…
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Pennsylvania’s Children’s Health Insurance Program turns 25 this week, but it faces financial troubles
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette By: Kate Giammarise Pennsylvania’s Children’s Health Insurance Program will mark a major milestone on Saturday — its 25th anniversary. … “I have yet to meet a state or federal lawmaker who doesn’t think CHIP is a program that works, who doesn’t think CHIP is a program worthy of public funds and who doesn’t…
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Texas eager to avoid telling nearly a half-million kids — right before Christmas — that they’ve lost health coverage
Dallas Morning News By: Jackie Wang Gov. Greg Abbott’s administration is trying to avoid mailing health insurance cancellation notices to nearly half a million children three days before Christmas. … But there are many concerns about moving families from CHIP to healthcare.gov, according to Adriana Kohler, senior health policy associate for the advocacy group Texans…
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Editorial: The high cost of Congress’ dithering
The Virginian-Pilot By: Editorial Team Families of more than 66,000 children in Virginia will receive a letter soon telling them that their insurance coverage could end by late January — less than 10 weeks from now. That’s a scary prospect heading into the holidays and the new year. But the notice is necessary because Congress…
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States pick up cost as Congress delays reauthorizing kids health plan
Dayton Daily News By: Jessica Wehrman The federal program that provides health insurance to nearly 9 million low income children — including 219,000 in Ohio — expired two months ago, and states are beginning to panic that they’ll have to cut services to families beginning early next year. … That the health insurance program, which…
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Arizona Puts Contingency Plan In Place to Fund Kids Health Care Program
KJZZ 91.5 By: Mark Brodie Funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, ran out at the end of September, and Congress has not yet acted to re-authorize it. … For a look at how this issue is affecting states across the country, I’m joined by Joan Alker, executive director of the Georgetown University…
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Alex Azar faces the Senate: What to expect at his hearing today
Politico By: Dan Diamond President Donald Trump’s pick to run HHS faces his first Senate confirmation hearing today. Azar will be in front of the HELP Committee starting at 9:30 a.m. … PULSE surveyed some of health care’s biggest thinkers for questions that are top of mind or are being overlooked. … Georgetown’s Joan Alker:…
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Research: Coverage and Medicaid Expansion Effects on Parents and Children
Comprehensive Overview of Multiple Studies The Effects of Medicaid Expansion under the ACA: Updated Findings from a Literature Review [note]Larisa Antonisse, Rachel Garfield, Robin Rudowitz and Samantha Artiga, Kaiser Family Foundation, Sep 25, 2017.[/note] A 2017 update of the broadest review currently published, this comprehensive look at 153 studies comparing Medicaid expansion and non-expansion states…
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This Thanksgiving I Am Grateful For My Child’s Health Insurance
It has been a long year here in Washington with many threats, twists, and turns for those who rely on publicly funded health coverage for their families – that is 40 percent of all children in the United States. In my role here at the Center for Children and Families, I often speak with reporters…
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Turning Back the Clock on Medicaid Would Undo Progress Nation Has Achieved in Reducing Uninsured Rate
Last week, CMS Administrator Seema Verma gave a major policy address to the National Association of Medicaid Directors. She made two things crystal clear. First, she cares about protecting “deserving” Americans: “…our safety net should be stronger to ensure that no deserving Americans fall through the cracks.” Second, she does not believe that the Medicaid…
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Millions of kids may lose health insurance over missed deadline by Congress
NBC News By: Elizabeth Chuck The diagnosis was dire: Roland Williams, a St. Louis boy with a megawatt smile and a penchant for painting, had an extremely rare form of lung cancer, oncologists told his mother in May 2016. … “CHIP and Medicaid have worked together, particularly over the past decade, to reduce the number…
