2019
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CCF Submits Comments on Administration’s Damaging Proposal to Change How Poverty is Measured
We submitted public comments to the Trump Administration’s proposal to change how the Census Bureau’s Official Poverty Measure (OPM) is adjusted annually for inflation. As we have previously written, while this sounds like a highly technical change, it would likely result in fewer children eligible for Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) relative…
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Another Troubling Sign: Child Participation Rates in Medicaid and CHIP Dropped in 2017
Since the 2017 ACS data was released in September 2018, we have been concerned about the first increase in the number of uninsured children in a decade as highlighted in our annual uninsured children’s report. We became even more concerned as we watched the number of children enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP drop in 2018,…
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Why Are So Many Children Losing Medicaid/CHIP Coverage?
Along with the American Academy of Pediatrics, First Focus and the Children’s Defense Fund, Georgetown University CCF held a press tele-conference and released a report examining an alarming trend in children’s health coverage. The report shows that more than 800,000 fewer children had Medicaid/CHIP coverage at the end of 2018 compared to 2017. This trend…
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Fewer Florida Children Enrolled In Medicaid, CHIP In 2018, Report Says
WUSF Public Media By: Julio Ochoa The number of children covered by Medicaid declined in Florida and other states for the first time in more than a decade. With the unemployment rate at historic lows, that could mean that more children are being covered by their parents’ employers. But some experts say something else is…
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Red Tape And Immigration Fears Have Led To A Drop In Health Coverage For Texas Children
KUT 90.5 Austin Public Radio By: Ashley Lopez About 146,000 fewer children in Texas were enrolled in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program between the end of 2017 and the end of 2018, according to a study released Thursday by the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families. Nationwide more than 828,000 fewer children…
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Kids are Losing Health Insurance and GOP Policies Look Like a Big Reason Why
Huff Post By: Jonathan Cohn The number of children getting health coverage through two large government programs fell by more than 800,000 last year, according to a new report from Georgetown University. The enrollment decline could be an indicator that the number of kids without any kind of health insurance went up in 2018, one…
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Maternal Depression Costs Society Billions Each Year, New Model Finds
The most common pregnancy complication is also among the costliest, for moms, babies and society at large. A new cost model created by researchers at Mathematica finds that untreated mood and anxiety disorders among pregnant women and new moms cost about $14.2 billion for births in 2017, when following the mom and child pair for…
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Texas Women Needed Help From the Legislature. They Didn’t Get It.
Dallas Observer By: Stephen Young More than 25% of Texas women between ages 18 and 44 don’t have health insurance coverage. That’s one of the biggest takeaways from a new study into the effects of Medicaid expansion on maternal health from the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute. Texas’ uninsured rate for women of child-bearing age…
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Study Says Idaho is Among States with Highest Number of Uninsured Women
670 KBOI News By: Jay Howell Georgetown University says Idaho’s women of childbearing age are some of the most uninsured in the country. Joan Alker with the Georgetown Center for Children and Families says 16% of Idaho’s women between 18 and 44 fall into the so-called Medicaid Gap, and won’t really be helped when expansion…
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Medicaid Expansion Tied to Drops in Maternal, Infant Mortality Rates
Tulsa Public Radio By: Matt Trotter Oklahoma’s maternal and infant mortality rates are 34th and 43rd in the U.S. Researchers report Medicaid expansion could make a difference. Reviews found Medicaid expansion states saw infant mortality rates fall 50 percent more than states that did not expand Medicaid and saw maternal mortality rate declines of 1.6…
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National Academies Report Charts Pathway to Better Health Coverage for Adolescents
Sustaining investments in the health of children as they enter their second decade of life is sound public policy, according to a new report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM). Not only is adolescence — the developmental period roughly from the age of 10 to 24 — a time of immense…
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Medicaid and CHIP Enrollment Decline Suggests the Child Uninsured Rate May Rise Again
Executive Summary There is no debate over the fact that children are losing Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) coverage. Overall, more than 828,000, or 2.2 percent, fewer children were enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP, combined, at the end of 2018 than the previous year.[note] Georgetown University Center for Children and Families Analysis of…
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Pregnancy-Related Deaths Are Rising In Utah. Experts say extending Medicaid Could Help Those At Risk
KUER 90.1- Utah’s NPR By: Erik Nuemann … But one of the best ways Utah and other states can slow this increase is by expanding coverage of Medicaid health insurance for pregnant women, according to new research released Wednesday. That’s a politically controversial issue in Utah, though, where coverage gaps remain following the limited expansion state…
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One In Four Texas Women Of Childbearing Age Doesn’t Have Health Insurance.
KUT 90.5 – Austin’s NPR Station By: Ashley Lopez Texas has the highest percentage of uninsured women between the ages of 18 to 44, according to a new study from the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families. The study found that, nationwide, 12.3 percent of women of childbearing age don’t have health insurance. The rate…
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Texas Has the Highest Uninsured Rate in the Country. Lawmakers Haven’t Addressed it This Session.
Texas Observer By: Sophie Novack Texas has the highest overall uninsured rate in the country, the highest rate of uninsured kids and the highest rate of uninsured women of childbearing age. Yet the Legislature is on track to wrap up for the next two years without passing bills to expand coverage… Meanwhile, a study released Wednesday found that Texas has…
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Trump Administration Leverages Medical Loss Ratio Requirements to Help Address Problem of Drug “Spread Pricing” in Medicaid Managed Care
In a welcome move, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued highly technical guidance on May 15, 2019 which could help address the inappropriate use of “spread pricing” by pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) in Medicaid managed care. Many managed care plans contract with PBMs to administer the pharmacy benefit for their enrollees. But…
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New MACPAC Members Named
May 21, 2019 Inside Health Policy Melanie Bella, the founding director of the Medicare-Medicaid Coordination Office at CMS, was named on Monday (May 20) as the new chair of the congressional Medicaid advisory commission, and two new members — health care lawyer Tom Barker and Georgetown University professor Tricia Brooks — were appointed to the…
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New Research Finds Medicaid Gains Help Lead to Healthier Mothers and Babies
(Following is the press release we issued today on a new report “Medicaid Expansion Fills the Gaps in Maternal Health Coverage Leading to Healthier Mothers and Babies” by Adam Searing and Donna Cohen Ross.) Medicaid helps fill the gaps in maternal health coverage and leads to healthier babies and mothers, according to a new report…
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Georgetown CCF’s Tricia Brooks Appointed to MACPAC
We at Georgetown CCF are so thrilled to announce that today the Comptroller General of the United States and head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) appointed Georgetown University Center for Children and Families Senior Fellow Tricia Brooks to the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC). The Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009…
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Social Media Toolkit for Maternal Health Report
Social Media Posts A new @georgetownccf report finds Medicaid expansion helps sharply reduce the uninsured rate for women of childbearing age, reduces infant mortality, and helps women get better care before they become pregnant. #MaternalHealthMatters https://bit.ly/2JPfa9N New study finds Medicaid expansion plays a crucial role in reducing maternal mortality and infant mortality rates, and…
