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New Report Shows Coverage Gains for New Mothers—But Progress has Stalled with New Threats on the Horizon
A new report from the Urban Institute indicates that health insurance coverage among new mothers in the first year postpartum has improved significantly over recent years, but that progress has begun to stall. Using data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS), the researchers find that the uninsured rate among women ages 19 to…
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New Report Examines How States Can Protect Pregnant/Postpartum Enrollees from Losing Health Coverage Due to Work Reporting Requirements (And Why We Should Still Be Worried)
As awareness has grown about the new Medicaid work reporting requirements (WRRs) that have already been put in place in some states but are mandated to begin January 1 of next year, it has created layers of confusion about who will be required to report work hours. Our new report on pregnant women and WRRs…
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Webinar: Medicaid Connections: Maternal and Infant Health and Justice
Download the Audio Transcript As the nation’s largest payer for maternity care, Medicaid is a cornerstone for advancing reproductive justice and dismantling systemic health inequities. H.R.1 legislation directly impacts maternal and infant health. True reproductive and justice requires policymakers to optimize Medicaid by funding holistic, culturally centered and linguistically concordant care, including midwifery, doula and…
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Protected: In-State Call Answer Rates for 988 Lifeline
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
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Medicaid Work Reporting Requirements: How Can States Protect Pregnant and Postpartum Women from Losing Health Coverage?
Overview Starting in January 2027, H.R. 1 requires every state that adopted the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA’s) Medicaid expansion to low-income adults (and select additional states) to implement work reporting requirements. These work reporting requirements (WRRs) predominantly affect those enrolled in the Medicaid expansion category—coverage for adults with incomes up to 138% of the federal…
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New Federal Medicaid Work Reporting Requirements Rule Threatens Coverage for Vulnerable Americans: An Explainer of the Interim Final Rule
On June 1, 2026, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), published the Interim Final Rule with Comment (CMS-2454-IFC, hereafter referred to as the IFR) “Medicaid Program; Community Engagement Requirement for Certain Individuals” as required by the 2025 Budget Reconciliation Law (hereafter referred to as H.R. 1). States that have expanded Medicaid to adults…
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CMS Approach to Work Reporting Requirement Won’t Work for People with Substance Use Disorders or Mental Health Conditions
By Deborah Steinberg, Senior Health Policy Attorney, Legal Action Center A few weeks ago, CCF explained how the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a new interim final rule with comment period (IFR) that went far beyond its authority to implement the new work reporting requirements. H.R. 1 – the budget reconciliation law…
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Revalidation of ‘High-Risk’ Medicaid Providers: Early Lessons from Minnesota
On April 23, the CMS Administrator, Dr. Mehmet Oz, issued a letter to State Medicaid Directors “formally asking that your state develop and submit a comprehensive two-year provider revalidation (PR) strategy….” This SMD is not posted on Medicaid.gov with all the other SMDs, but you can view it on the Fox News website. The state…
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Transforming Perinatal Care in Colorado: Q&A with Elephant Circle Founder Indra Lusero
We have been watching and tracking all of the progress in states to improve Medicaid for pregnant and postpartum people during a period of rapid, positive change, even during the most recent legislative sessions under a backdrop of federal cuts. Colorado was one of the early states to pursue comprehensive maternal health initiatives, so we…
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Post Office Rural Service and Proposed Medicaid Work Reporting Requirements on Collision Course
I recently wrote about problems with the federal government’s suggested definition of “volunteer” in the proposed rule implementing the new law (H.R. 1) passed by Congress that requires patients to meet work/volunteer reporting requirements to maintain Medicaid coverage. The changes in this law are estimated to increase the number of uninsured Americans by 10 million people…
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Georgetown CCF Medicaid/CHIP Expert Tricia Brooks Retires (sort of) and Will Return as Professor Emeritus
For anyone who has worked with Tricia Brooks over the last twenty years, it is impossible to imagine her retiring. Tricia has been the heart and soul of much of the Center for Children and Families’ work with state and national partners and a leading national expert on Medicaid eligibility and enrollment, health care quality,…
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How H.R. 1 Cuts and Changes to Medicaid Played out in 2026 State Legislative Sessions (Part 2)
It’s been nearly a year since H.R.1 was signed into law, enacting the largest Medicaid cuts in history and setting off a scramble in state capitals to respond. Back in March, we took a look at how ten state legislatures were grappling with the impending budget holes and policies created by H.R.1. Now that most…
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Medicaid Work Reporting Requirements: States Ask a Federal Court to Protect Medically Frail Individuals from CMS Overreach
On June 3, CMS issued an Interim Final Rule (IFR) misinterpreting the work reporting requirements enacted last July in H.R. 1. The H.R. 1 provisions were bad enough, but as my colleague Leo Cuello has explained, the IFR imposes policies on states and individuals that the Congress did not enact. Most notably, the IFR makes…
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Professor, Mentor, Researcher, and Data Pioneer: Celebrating Lynn Blewett’s Retirement
I first met Lynn Blewett as a graduate student at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, where her courses on the U.S. health care system fundamentally shaped how I understand policy and evidence. What struck me most was her ability to translate complex health systems into their human dimensions and to remind us…
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Webinar: Medicaid Financing
The Georgetown University Center for Children and Families hosted a webinar took place on Tuesday, June 30 at 2pm ET. This webinar covered the basics of Medicaid financing, including how the federal-state partnership works, how federal funding is mandatory and not subject to annual appropriations, and how states finance their share of Medicaid costs. It…
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Early Signals Suggest a Second Year of Double-Digit Marketplace Premium Increases
It’s the start of rate review season for state insurance departments. Although most proposed premium rates for 2027 Marketplace coverage are not due to federal regulators until mid-July and will not be public until the end of July, some state regulators require insurers to submit proposed rate filings in May or June and release varying levels of…
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Emerging State Data Paint a Bleak Picture of 2026 Marketplace Enrollment
Congress’s failure to extend premium tax credit enhancements led to unprecedented net premium increases in Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces in 2026. As a result, fewer people signed up for coverage during the 2026 open enrollment period, and many others “bought down” to less expensive plans that carry higher out-of-pocket costs. However, to more fully…
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Medicaid Connections Webinar Series
Medicaid is the invisible backbone of advocacy promoting health and well-being for people in low-income jobs. It covers birthing for moms and babies, comprehensive benefits for children, coverage for low-income adults, and it helps keep the lights on at many hospitals that accept all types of insurance. Deep cuts to the program could significantly affect…
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Ten New States Join the CCBHC Medicaid Demonstration, H.R. 1 Puts Its Success at Risk
As readers of the blog know, the Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) model has been one of the rare bright spots in more recent federal behavioral health policy and one with deep bipartisan roots. As a reminder, CCBHCs are community-based behavioral health providers that meet federal certification criteria. While some operate independently, the CCBHC…
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Young Children’s Uninsurance is On the Rise – What Can Be Done to Protect Child Health?
Earlier this month, we released an analysis of uninsurance trends that found that young children were becoming uninsured at a faster rate than their school-aged peers. The trend is alarming and predates the massive declines we are seeing in child Medicaid enrollment since President Trump took office and before H.R. 1 Medicaid cuts and policy…
