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Why are There More Uninsured Kids and What Can We Do About It?
Yesterday the Census Bureau released one of its annual surveys (the Current Population Survey or CPS), which looks at health insurance status. This year, in an unusual move, the Bureau actually released a mini special report focusing on children. While we await more data at the end of the month from the American Community Survey […]
US Census: 425,000 More Uninsured Children
Statement by Joan Alker, in response to Current Population Survey data released by the U.S. Census Bureau today showing that the number of uninsured children increased by 425,000, and the uninsured rate increased by 0.6 percentage points to 5.5 percent in 2018. “Data released by the U.S. Census Bureau today confirm our worst fears. An […]
State Flexibility Has Its Limits — Even for the Trump Administration
Like many others, I was out of Washington for the second half of August. That tends to be the period of time when Administrations publicly announce decisions they want buried. And when it comes to Medicaid waivers, the timing may not have been intentional, but what happened in August is worth unearthing to examine more […]
Preparing for the Release of the American Community Survey Data and the New Census Data Tool
This week, we are preparing for the release of the first batch of health insurance data from the 2018 American Community Survey (ACS) on September 10, 2019 via the U.S. Census Bureau’s new platform Data.Census.Gov. Typically the Census releases ACS data online in several ways: the annual Census reports on income, poverty and health insurance […]
Repealing the Medicaid Access Rule is Bad News for Children and Providers
On July 15, CMS proposed to repeal—but not replace—the Access Rule. Repeal of this important rule will leave children in Medicaid fee-for-service, as well as their providers, with no systematic assessment of their access to services and no procedural protections against arbitrary payment cuts. (This could be especially problematic in the event of a recession, […]