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Five Steps States Can Take to Address Inequities of Health Crisis
In May, Tekisha Dwan Everette and Karen Siegel from Health Equity Solutions released an article titled, “Five Key Questions State Health Officials Can Ask Right Now to Advance Health Equity During COVID-19 Response Efforts.” Preliminary state COVID-19 data disaggregated by race, geography and gender shows significant disparities in care and infection rates. These disparities are…
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Oklahoma Voters Approve Constitutional Amendment to Expand Medicaid
Oklahoma voters took a historic step and nudged their state forward toward becoming the 38th in the nation (including Washington, DC) to provide residents more affordable health insurance through their Medicaid program. The constitutional amendment passed by voters requires the state to open the doors to coverage no later than July 1, 2021. State leaders…
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Health and Racial Disparities for Babies, Mothers Need Focused Attention, New Report Finds
As we’re increasingly learning, the experience of preconception, prenatal, birth, and postpartum health for moms flows directly to their infants, setting up the health status of the young family in the critical first years of life. This is why ZERO TO THREE’s State of Babies report this year calls special attention to hurdles faced by…
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Coal communities increasingly rely on federal health programs
Energy News US By: Mason Adams and Dustin Bleizeffer Every July for two decades, volunteer doctors, dentists and nurses gathered at the Wise County Fairgrounds to deliver free medical, dental and vision care…. “One thing that’s struck me is how Medicaid in the last five years or so has become much more popular than it…
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Why the coronavirus drug remdesivir costs $3,100
Vox By: Dylan Scott Remdesivir, the antiviral drug that appears to reduce the recovery time for hospitalized Covid-19 patients, has a price tag: $3,120 for the typical five-day regiment for a patient on private insurance. Gilead, the drug’s manufacturer, announced the news on Monday…. Edwin Park at the Georgetown Center on Children and Families told…
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Fact Sheets: Latino Children’s Health Coverage
State officials’ decisions about coverage options, especially in times of crises, have a profound effect on children and can exacerbate pre-existing racial and ethnic disparities. For notes on methodology, visit this page. Arizona Fact Sheet California Fact Sheet Florida Fact Sheet Georgia Fact Sheet Nevada Fact Sheet Puerto Rico Fact Sheet Texas Fact Sheet For…
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Methodology: Latino Children’s Coverage Health Fact Sheets
Fact Sheets are additional analyses building upon the following brief report: Whitener, K., Lopez, S., Roygardner, L. & Snider, M. (2020). Decade of Success for Latino Children’s Health Now in Jeopardy (March 10, 2020). Unless otherwise noted, the data cited is based on Georgetown University Center for Children and Families analysis of the U.S. Census…
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Is pandemic time the right time to make Medicaid recipients look for jobs?
Montana Free Press By: Katheryn Houghton In 2019, Montana lawmakers passed Medicaid expansion, building in new work and “community engagement” requirements for eligibility. Those requirements were scheduled to go into effect this summer. In the interim, a pandemic has upended both the statewide economy and the employment status and prospects of thousands of Montanans…. Joan…
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At Heart of Medicaid Expansion Vote: What Program Would Cost Oklahoma
Oklahoma Watch By: Trevor Brown In a recent video ad opposing a state question to expand Medicaid, a hammer comes crashing down on a pink piggy bank as a voice warns that approving the proposal will lead to “higher taxes and cuts to core services.”… “There have been multiple studies in individual states and nationally…
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Obamacare Faces Unprecedented Test as Economy Sinks
New York Times By: Abby Goodnough and Reed Abelson The Affordable Care Act, the landmark health law that has been a subject of caustic debate for more than a decade, is being tested as never before, as millions of Americans lose their jobs and medical coverage in the midst of the nation’s gravest health crisis in a…
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More Floridians turn to Medicaid amid pandemic
Ocala The number of Floridians relying on the state’s health care safety-net program continues to push higher amid the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. Newly released figures show that enrollment in Florida’s Medicaid program grew by nearly 7.7% between February and May, but at least one analysis puts the growth rate even higher…. “When…
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CMS Proposes Medicaid Drug Rebate Changes to Facilitate Commercial Adoption of Value-Based Purchasing Arrangements
On June 19, 2020, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a proposed rule to change how drug manufacturers would report prices for purposes of the “best price” requirement under the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program (MDRP), among other modifications to the rebate program and to Medicaid coverage of outpatient prescription drugs. The intent…
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DACA is here to stay… for now
Today, the Supreme Court rejected the Trump Administration’s decision to terminate Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), finding that the move was a violation of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) because it was arbitrary and capricious. (This may sound familiar – it’s the same problem the Administration has faced in the litigation surrounding Medicaid work…
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Medicaid Enrollment Appears to be Accelerating
[Editor’s Note: For updated enrollment numbers, see “Medicaid Enrollment Increases Show Surprisingly Wide Variability Among States“.] We’ve been keeping a sharp eye on available state data on Medicaid enrollment as the number of Americans filing unemployment claims continues to rise at a historic pace. Medicaid enrollment is closely tied to the economic circumstances of the…
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At Hug Me Tight, no more hugs for now: The challenges of child care in the age of COVID-19
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette By: Kate Giammarise For the first time in months, young children toddled through the door at Hug Me Tight Childlife Center on Monday. They faced a few changes. Two-year-old Titan Yates arrived around 8:30 a.m. His mother Ty logged him into the center’s computer system by using her phone to scan a QR…
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Medicaid Rolls Surge, Adding to Budget Woes
Pew Trusts By: Michael Ollove Many of the tens of millions of Americans who have lost their health insurance along with their jobs are enrolling in Medicaid — and with state budgets decimated by the pandemic, state officials worry they won’t have the money to pay for their health care…. Georgetown University’s Center for Children…
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State Officials Weighing Emergency Medicaid Services for Undocumented Immigrants
WVTF By: Michael Pope Undocumented immigrants are being hit hard by the COVID-19 health crisis, and access to health care is a major stumbling block for many. But, Virginia could take action to increase availability of testing and treatment. A handful of states have made emergency Medicaid services available for undocumented immigrants to receive testing…
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MACPAC looks to improve care integration for dual-eligibles
Modern Healthcare By: Michael Brady Key policy changes could significantly improve the integration of care for people that are eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid, the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission said Monday in its annual report to Congress. MACPAC said CMS should loosen enrollment restrictions for so-called “dual-eligibles” by creating an exception…
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Oklahoma’s Medicaid Expansion Debate Rollercoaster
On June 30, Oklahoma voters will have a chance to require their state to expand affordable health coverage through expanding Medicaid. This would follow the lead of 37 other states (including DC) that have already expanded the program to cover more working adults since 2014. No state has gone back on its expansion decision and…
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Medicaid Work Requirements in the Time of Unemployment
Between March 1 and June 6, a total of 44.5 million Americans filed initial claims for unemployment insurance. These massive job losses will result in a dramatic increase in the number of Americans without health insurance coverage, threatening the ability of unemployed Americans to afford needed care for themselves and their families during the COVID-19…
