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California’s Medicaid Breakthrough: An Opportunity to Advance Children’s Social and Emotional Health
By Sarah Crow and Christina Altmayer Revamping Medicaid policies to improve young children’s social and emotional health and address health care inequities is particularly critical in California, where over half of children ages 0 to 5 have Medicaid coverage (known as Medi-Cal, in California), and two-thirds are children of color. California ranks near the bottom…
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Some States’ Letters to CMS on Medicaid Work Requirements Double Down
Last month, CMS began taking steps to get rid of Medicaid section 1115 work requirement waivers as my colleague Joan Alker has written about. The Biden Administration sent letters to states with approved work requirements that “preliminarily” disapproved the policy on the basis of the COVID-19 pandemic and uncertainty of its aftermath on health and…
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Implementing American Rescue Plan’s 12-month Postpartum Medicaid Coverage: Federal and State Actions
Federal matching funds for the American Rescue Plan Act’s new state Medicaid option to provide 12 full months of postpartum coverage won’t be available *officially* to states until April 2022. (Say Ahhh! Readers know that the Families First Coronavirus Response Act requires states to keep all Medicaid beneficiaries enrolled, including postpartum women, so no coverage…
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Medicaid Wars: Rescind and Withdraw (Episode II)
The Biden Administration has a long list of bad Medicaid policies to unwind. As chronicled in Episode I, the groundwork for the unwinding was laid in a Presidential Executive Order, “Strengthening Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act,” issued on January 28. Among other things, the E.O. directs the Secretary of HHS to review section 1115 demonstrations and…
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Maggie Clark Talks Maternal Health with Marketplace
Listen as Maggie Clark discusses the importance of postpartum Medicaid coverage with Sabri Ben-Achour of Marketplace. Maggie Clark with the Georgetown Center for Children and Families said that “when women lose this coverage after 60 days, about half of them become uninsured. So that’s a million new mothers every year who are losing coverage every…
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House Hearing Will Examine the Looming Fiscal Cliff for Medicaid Programs in the Territories
On Wednesday, March 17, 2021, the Health Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold an important hearing on “Averting a Crisis: Protecting Access to Health Care in the U.S. Territories.” In December 2019, Congress provided Puerto Rico and the other territories — American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S.…
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American Rescue Plan is Lifting Children Out of Poverty: Will it Affect Their Medicaid Eligibility?
An extraordinary and historic moment happened last week for children and families when President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan into law. The bill is the 3rd piece of emergency legislation enacted since the advent of the COVID-19 global pandemic, which has upended the country in so many ways. It is hard to imagine that…
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Optional 12 Months Postpartum Medicaid Coverage Leaves Opportunity to do More
Tucked inside the American Rescue Plan signed into law by President Biden last week is a Medicaid state plan option allowing states to offer pregnancy-related Medicaid and CHIP coverage for one year after the end of pregnancy, extending coverage well beyond the current cutoff of 60 days postpartum. The option, which is the result of…
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American Rescue Plan Act Will Strengthen Public and Private Health Insurance
The House and Senate have passed the American Rescue Plan and the President plans to sign it tomorrow bringing critical relief to America’s families. In addition to providing relief to unemployed workers, pulling millions of children and families out of poverty and helping school districts address learning loss, the COVID-19 relief legislation will strengthen both…
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American Rescue Plan Act: Health Coverage Provisions Explained
On March 11, 2021, President Biden will sign into law the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act of 2021 (H.R. 1319). The wide-ranging, critically needed COVID-19 relief legislation includes a number of key provisions that strengthen both public and private health insurance coverage. Some of the new provisions build on actions Congress previously took in earlier…
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Biden Administration Actions on Public Charge Rules Help Restore Hope for Immigrant Families
This week brought some much-needed good news on public charge, which has immigration advocates singing Prince’s classic hit, “1999,” in homage to a return to the longstanding public charge rules also known as the 1999 field guidance. The good news is certainly worthy of a princely celebration, but some may be wondering how we got…
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Too Many Babies Miss Out on Medicaid Infant Coverage, Promising Practices Point the Way for States
By: Kay Johnson For more than 25 years, federal law has guaranteed enrollment for babies born to Medicaid beneficiary mothers, known as deemed newborn coverage, which begins at birth and continues uninterrupted through the first year of life. Passed with bipartisan Congressional support under the Deficit Reduction Act of 1984 (P.L. 98-369), the purpose of…
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Adam Searing Discusses the Benefits of Medicaid Expansion for States, Rural Communities, and Families with NCPolicyWatch
Listen as Adam Searing discusses findings from the report Children Are Left Behind When States Fail To Expand Medicaid with Rob Schofield of NCPolicyWatch.
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Kaiser Family Foundation and Georgetown CCF Release 50-State Survey on Medicaid and CHIP Eligibility and Enrollment
The 2021 Annual 50-State Survey on Medicaid and CHIP Eligibility and Enrollment conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) and CCF is now available. As in previous years, the report confirms eligibility levels for children, pregnant women, parents and expansion adults. However, in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the survey was scaled back in…
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Medicaid and CHIP Eligibility, Enrollment, and Cost Sharing Policies as of January 2021: Findings from a 50-State Survey
Executive Summary During the coronavirus pandemic, Medicaid has played a key role in providing coverage to millions of people who have lost their jobs or their health coverage. In addition, provisions included in the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) and the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act require states to maintain eligibility…
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Federal Incentives to Expand Medicaid and 2021 State Legislative Session End Dates
Congress debates and looks likely to pass a COVID relief bill this month that includes substantial new financial incentives for Medicaid non-expansion states to finally extend health coverage to lower income parents and workers as 39 other states (including DC) have done. States that expand would get two years of increased Medicaid payments based on…
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Report Examines the High Cost of Failure to Treat Postpartum Depression and Other Maternal Mental Health Conditions
Editor’s note: This blog is a condensed version of a blog originally published by Texans Care for Children describing the findings of a new report, “Untreated Maternal Mental Health Conditions in Texas: Costs to Society and to Medicaid,” published by Mathematica, in collaboration with the St. David’s Foundation. The new report is a state-specific look…
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Health Policy and the First Amendment: Protecting public’s right to be heard in the state legislative process
Georgetown University Collaboration Defends Rights, Facilitates Civic Engagement Recently here at the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy, I’ve had the pleasure of working with some of my colleagues at the Georgetown University Law School in the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection. Professor Mary McCord and Senior Counsel Annie Owens are respected attorneys…
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More Evidence that Medicaid Expansion Linked to Employment and Education Gains
I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard people say “Medicaid expansion will encourage people not to work,” despite the fact that multiple studies have demonstrated just the opposite. We know that before the pandemic, most adults enrolled in Medicaid who could work did so, and the majority of adults who weren’t working reported…
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House-Passed American Rescue Plan Act Would Spur Medicaid Expansion and Promote Maternal Health
[Editor’s Note: President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan into law on March 11, 2021. See Georgetown University CCF/CHIR brief for a summary of final health coverage provisions.] On February 27, the House passed the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (H.R. 1319), its COVID-19 relief reconciliation bill. The bill includes a number of provisions…
