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Rural Disparities, Racial Disparities, and Maternal Health Crisis Call Out for Solutions
Maternal health access and care were already in crisis before COVID-19, and the pandemic has further laid bare the racial and geographic disparities experienced by pregnant women and new mothers across the country. Last month we submitted comments in response to CMS’s request for information on improving access and quality of maternal health in rural…
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HHS’ new $35 billion in grants target Medicaid, safety net, hot spot providers
Modern Healthcare By: Rachel Cohrs HHS on Tuesday announced new grant distributions to Medicaid providers, safety net hospitals, and hospitals in COVID-19 hot spots. The agency in recent days faced pressure from a bipartisan group of lawmakers to send more of Congress’ $175 billion provider relief fund to Medicaid-dependent providers. HHS said that $15 billion…
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Opportunities for Supporting Children and Families through Pediatric Primary Care in the Time of COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic is causing serious health and economic consequences on families, children, and communities and is threatening the viability of the health care delivery system. While we can’t know the lasting consequences of the unprecedented stress confronting families, it is likely to have detrimental, lasting effects on the social and emotional health of our…
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Confronting Maternal Mortality Crisis: New Resources Track State Progress on Extending Medicaid Postpartum Coverage
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, addressing the maternal mortality crisis was among the highest policy changes on the priority list for state lawmakers and health officials. COVID-19 has further exposed the fault lines that create health disparities between racial, ethnic, income, and other groups. As the virus has spread, it is communities of color, low-income communities…
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Racial Health Inequities and Medicaid Work Requirements
Research by the Center for Children and Family demonstrates that Medicaid work reporting requirements proposed for low-income parents would disproportionately affect African American mothers and families. In three of the five states we reviewed, African American adults represent the largest proportion of the population subject to work reporting requirements. In all five states, the share…
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We Need to Name it: Racism is a Public Health Crisis
Our country boils over in tension about the inaction of our leaders to address (among other things) the clear police brutality and racism that has led to the murder of Black Americans, most recently George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. We were already witnessing the COVID-19 pandemic further expose the fault lines within our health system…
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We Can’t Analyze the Pain of Racism
For those of us at CCF who live in the District of Columbia, we have watched the deaths from COVID-19 mount disproportionately in the African American community. Three quarters of those who have died are Black, yet African Americans constitute 46% of the population. This pattern has been replicated across the country in African American,…
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‘Why Do We Always Get Hit First?’ Proposed Budget Cuts Target Vulnerable Californians
LAist By: Samantha Young Shirley Madden, 83, relies on a caregiver and her two grown daughters to remain living at home — and not in a nursing home. Her daughters, 55-year-old Carrie and 60-year-old Kristy Madden, both use wheelchairs and need a second caregiver to help them navigate their own daily lives… States that drop…
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Iowa Families That Lose Health Insurance During Crisis Have Options
Public News Service Losing employer-provided health insurance is one of the side effects of the pandemic-driven economic crisis. That poses a big concern for Iowa families and their children, bit many do have options. It’s estimated that as many as 43 million Americans could lose their health insurance as a result of the pandemic… While…
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Maternal health improved by Medicaid coverage, study says
Modern Healthcare By: Steven Johnson Expanded access to Medicaid was associated with 1.6 fewer maternal deaths per 100,000 women compared with states that didn’t expand the program, according to a new study. The infant death rate also fell more dramatically in Medicaid expansion states—by more than 50% from 2010 to 2016. Those findings were in…
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Latest Coverage Proposals In Congress
Health Affairs By: Katie Keith Congressional Democrats have released several recent proposals related to health insurance coverage and the COVID-19 crisis… The Heroes Act would further raise the temporary FMAP increase to 14 percentage points from July 1, 2020 through June 30, 2021. If the emergency extends beyond June 30, 2021, the FMAP adjustment would…
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For many Americans, losing a job means scrambling for health insurance
CBS News By: Walecia Konrad When Tim Seib, a theater director who lives in Manhattan, lost not one but two jobs in March due to the shutdowns caused by the coronavirus, he found himself embarking on a different full-time pursuit: hunting for affordable health insurance…”A lot of these folks who’ve never experienced job losses before…
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How Partisan Gerrymandering Hurts Kids
American Progress By: Alex Tausanovitch, et. al Gerrymandering is the practice of drawing district lines to unfairly favor particular politicians or political parties in elections. It is a political dirty trick—and an extremely harmful one—that turns democracy upside down, letting politicians choose their voters instead of voters choosing their politicians….However, eligibility for Medicaid and CHIP…
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COVID-19 and Child Welfare
We’ve written a lot in the past few months about the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on Medicaid and CHIP. We’ve also written about the devastating impact of the pandemic on the economy and state budgets. Unfortunately, the devastation doesn’t stop there. Today, we invited two of our partners at the Children’s Defense Fund, Stefanie…
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Behavioral Health Services in Separate State CHIP Programs: Is Your State in Compliance?
Access to behavioral health services has long lagged behind physical health, despite a clear and growing need. The need has no doubt been exacerbated by the stress of the new coronavirus. Finding and ensuring health coverage for pregnant women and children’s mental health services – ones that are appropriate for their developmental stage — can…
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Medicaid as First Responder: Enrollment Is on the Rise
Introduction Medicaid is and will continue to play a central role in the nation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic with respect to both the health crisis and the ensuing economic crisis. With unemployment rapidly rising to double digits and workers (and their spouses and dependent children) losing their employer-sponsored insurance, it has been widely expected…
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Congress must address the urgent Latino priorities left out of the CARES Act
Unidos US On behalf of UnidosUS (formerly the National Council of La Raza), I thank you for coming together to pass the bipartisan Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act …The pandemic has reinforced the importance of quality, affordable, and accessible health coverage and care in order to live a healthy life in general,…
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Here’s how much for-profit hospitals have received in bailout funding so far
Healthcare Dive By: Samantha Liss The nation’s largest for-profit hospital chains have received a total of about $2.2 billion in federal grants so far, which is intended to provide financial relief to hospitals and providers amid the outbreak of the novel coronavirus and the havoc it has wreaked on their operations… “Nothing has been targeted…
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Medicaid Work Requirements: News from the Litigation Front
It has been obvious for several months that the wheels have come off the Medicaid work requirements bus. The Secretary of HHS has approved “demonstrations” of work requirements in nine states; none of these states is currently implementing. And no state that accepts the 6.2 percentage point increase in its federal Medicaid matching rate made…
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As record numbers of Pennsylvanians struggle, more ask for help
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette By: Kate Giammarise With many businesses still partially or completely closed and unemployment climbing, some Pennsylvanians are turning to public programs to make ends meet — though far fewer than might be expected given double-digit jobless numbers and long lines at free food distribution sites… A dozen states have posted April enrollment data…
