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Critical Bipartisan House Legislation Would Avert Looming Fiscal Cliff for Medicaid Programs in the Territories
Editor’s Note: On July 21, 2021, the full House Energy and Commerce Committee, by voice vote, reported the bipartisan bill (H.R. 4406) to temporarily extend federal Medicaid funding for Puerto Rico and the other territories and avert the fiscal cliff. On Thursday, July 15, 2021, the Health Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee…
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Pandemic Has Taken Unprecedented Toll on Mental Health of Children, More Support Needed
A study released last month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) adds to the mounting evidence that the COVID-19 pandemic has taken an unprecedented toll on children’s mental health. CDC Study Findings According to the findings of the study, emergency department visits by children ages 12 to 17 for suspected suicide attempts…
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CCF Annual Child Health Policy Conference 2021
July 20th – 22nd, 2021 CCF’s annual conference is geared toward state and national child health advocates and researchers. It is not open to the press. View speaker and moderator bios. View conference agenda. Tuesday, July 20 Covering All Kids 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. ET For the past several years, children’s health insurance coverage…
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Removing Barriers to Health Coverage for Noncitizen Children is Key to Addressing Harmful Health Disparities
This month’s issue of Health Affairs is about borders, immigrants, and health, and there are several pieces focused on health of immigrant children and children in immigrant families. Mariellen Jewers and Leighton Ku’s article, “Noncitizen Children Face Higher Health Harms Compared With Their Siblings Who Have US Citizen Status,” looks at differences in access to…
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Where States Stand on Extended Postpartum Medicaid Coverage
Since the American Rescue Plan passed in March, we’ve been closely following state decisions to take up the important new Medicaid state plan option that allows states to extend postpartum Medicaid and CHIP coverage for 12 months after the end of the pregnancy, well beyond the current federal cutoff of just 60 days postpartum. Because…
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What Can the Biden Administration Do to Promote Health Equity in Medicaid?
The Biden Administration has announced its intention to make health equity and reducing racial disparities a central feature of its policy agenda issuing an Executive Order on day one instructing federal agencies to promote equity in multiple ways. Section 9 of this Executive Order noted that many federal datasets were not disaggregated by race/ethnicity/gender/disability etc.,…
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Medicaid Expansion Could Narrow Health Coverage Gaps for Latino Families
COVID-19 has exposed and exacerbated longstanding health coverage disparities for Latino families, even as many Latino workers put themselves and their families at greater risk while continuing to work in essential roles to support their communities during the pandemic. These coverage disparities persist across the country, but are wider and growing faster in states that…
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Expanding Medicaid Would Help Close Coverage Gap for Latino Children and Parents
Introduction The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has lowered the uninsured rate for children and families nationally, but its impact varies across the country based on whether a state has adopted the ACA’s Medicaid expansion to cover more adults.1 For Latino children and families, Medicaid serves an especially important role; while Latinos are more likely to…
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A Profile of Florida’s Low-Wage Uninsured Workers
The recently enacted American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP) includes new large financial incentives for states to extend health insurance coverage to low-wage workers and other adults earning less than $17,775 a year.¹ These incentives apply to regular spending in a state’s Medicaid program and offer a five-percentage point across the board increase in the…
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States Could Have the Opportunity to Bolster and Speed Up Coverage for Former Foster Care Youth
Longtime readers of Say Ahh! and fellow health policy wonks will know that one of the most bipartisan provisions of the Affordable Care Act extended Medicaid coverage for youth aging out of the foster care system until age 26 if they were enrolled before their 18th birthday. (If not, Tricia Brooks has chronicled all the…
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Medicaid Managed Care: Transparency, Procurement, and Children’s Health
Last month, Children Now released a report on the delivery of preventive health services to children by Medicaid managed care organizations (MCOs) in California. The report analyzes MCO-specific performance data for 2019 for five different measures: well-child visits in the first 15 months of life; child and adolescent well-child visits; lead screening for children under…
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A Profile of South Dakota’s Low-Wage Uninsured Workers
The recently enacted American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP) includes new large financial incentives for states to extend health insurance coverage to low-wage workers and other adults earning less than $17,775 a year.¹ These incentives apply to regular spending in a state’s Medicaid program and offer a five-percentage point across the board increase in the…
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A Profile of South Carolina’s Low-Wage Uninsured Workers
The recently enacted American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP) includes new large financial incentives for states to extend health insurance coverage to low-wage workers and other adults earning less than $17,775 a year.¹ These incentives apply to regular spending in a state’s Medicaid program and offer a five-percentage point across the board increase in the…
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How Do State Policy Decisions Help or Hinder Access to Health Coverage for Latino Children?
As the overall child uninsured rate started going in the wrong direction between 2016 and 2019, Latino children were disproportionately affected, widening the long-standing coverage disparity after years of progress. As of 2019, there is an almost 5 percentage point gap between the uninsured rate for non-Latino and Latino children nationwide (4.4 percent versus 9.3…
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Getting Back on Track: A Detailed Look at Health Coverage Trends for Latino Children
Introduction From 2008 to 2016, the Latino child uninsured rate fell steadily, eventually achieving a historic low of 7.7 percent in 2016.1 Although this rate was still higher than that for non-Latino children, the decline signaled steady progress towards narrowing health coverage disparities between Latino children and their peers. However, as the overall child uninsured…
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Getting Back on Track: A Detailed Look at Health Coverage Trends for Latino Children Appendix
Appendix A. How the Census Bureau Collects Questions about Race and Ethnicity on the American Community Survey and Compiles Hispanic/Latino Data The American Community Survey (ACS), fielded by the U.S. Census Bureau, collects questionnaires from approximately 3.5 million households every year and extrapolates estimates from these responses.35 The ACS provides the most reliable annual estimates…
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Getting Back on Track: A Detailed Look at Health Coverage Trends for Latino Children Methodology
Methodology Data Sources Georgetown University Center for Children and Families (CCF) uses the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS), an annual survey of approximately 3.5 million individuals, to analyze national, state, and local trends in health insurance coverage. The data in this report come from three sources: 2016-2019 Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS), a…
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Iowa’s New Child Health Dashboard Provides Insight into How Medicaid Managed Care is Working for Kids
In April of 2016, Iowa transitioned its entire Medicaid program from a fee-for-service model to a managed care model. Over the past five years, Iowa’s Medicaid program has dealt with more than its fair share of upheaval—from managed care organizations (MCOs) reporting catastrophic losses to a lawsuit claiming that the transition to managed care deprived…
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States Move Toward Multi-Year Continuous Eligibility for Children in Medicaid
Children need consistent access to health care, especially in their early years when frequent screenings, vaccinations, and well child checkups are so critical to their development and school readiness. And despite efforts to streamline and simplify eligibility processes and improve retention, many children covered by Medicaid (as well as other sources of health insurance) experience…
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Medicaid Expansion Debate: Wyoming, Mississippi and Missouri
Even as state legislative sessions wrap up around the country, the Medicaid expansion debate remains very much alive in several states. With significant extra funding available under the federal American Rescue Plan for states that do expand, the financial benefits for states have never been greater. A new report on the economic effects of Medicaid…
