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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…
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A Profile of Texas’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 otheradults 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 Kansas’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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What Is Happening With Medicaid Enrollment In Q1 Of 2021?
As regular readers of SayAhhh! know, we have been tracking state administrative data for some early indicators of what is happening with Medicaid enrollment during the pandemic and associated recession. Federal data that tracks all states is available through November 2020 but at this point in time it lags behind what some states report so…
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More States Moving to Extend Medicaid Postpartum Coverage Option Under ARP, Why Are Georgia and Missouri Limiting Its Reach?
Extending postpartum coverage continues to be a hot topic in state legislatures, in Congress, and in the Biden Administration. As my colleagues shared in a blog last week, CMS recently approved Section 1115 demonstration waivers in Georgia and Missouri that extend postpartum benefits to at least some pregnant people. While a step forward, the approvals…
