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Texas Women Needed Help From the Legislature. They Didn’t Get It.
Dallas Observer By: Stephen Young More than 25% of Texas women between ages 18 and 44 don’t have health insurance coverage. That’s one of the biggest takeaways from a new study into the effects of Medicaid expansion on maternal health from the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute. Texas’ uninsured rate for women of child-bearing age…
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Study Says Idaho is Among States with Highest Number of Uninsured Women
670 KBOI News By: Jay Howell Georgetown University says Idaho’s women of childbearing age are some of the most uninsured in the country. Joan Alker with the Georgetown Center for Children and Families says 16% of Idaho’s women between 18 and 44 fall into the so-called Medicaid Gap, and won’t really be helped when expansion…
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Medicaid Expansion Tied to Drops in Maternal, Infant Mortality Rates
Tulsa Public Radio By: Matt Trotter Oklahoma’s maternal and infant mortality rates are 34th and 43rd in the U.S. Researchers report Medicaid expansion could make a difference. Reviews found Medicaid expansion states saw infant mortality rates fall 50 percent more than states that did not expand Medicaid and saw maternal mortality rate declines of 1.6…
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National Academies Report Charts Pathway to Better Health Coverage for Adolescents
Sustaining investments in the health of children as they enter their second decade of life is sound public policy, according to a new report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM). Not only is adolescence — the developmental period roughly from the age of 10 to 24 — a time of immense…
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Medicaid and CHIP Enrollment Decline Suggests the Child Uninsured Rate May Rise Again
Executive Summary There is no debate over the fact that children are losing Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) coverage. Overall, more than 828,000, or 2.2 percent, fewer children were enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP, combined, at the end of 2018 than the previous year. A drop in child enrollment is unusual; between 2000…
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Pregnancy-Related Deaths Are Rising In Utah. Experts say extending Medicaid Could Help Those At Risk
KUER 90.1- Utah’s NPR By: Erik Nuemann … But one of the best ways Utah and other states can slow this increase is by expanding coverage of Medicaid health insurance for pregnant women, according to new research released Wednesday. That’s a politically controversial issue in Utah, though, where coverage gaps remain following the limited expansion state…
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One In Four Texas Women Of Childbearing Age Doesn’t Have Health Insurance.
KUT 90.5 – Austin’s NPR Station By: Ashley Lopez Texas has the highest percentage of uninsured women between the ages of 18 to 44, according to a new study from the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families. The study found that, nationwide, 12.3 percent of women of childbearing age don’t have health insurance. The rate…
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Texas Has the Highest Uninsured Rate in the Country. Lawmakers Haven’t Addressed it This Session.
Texas Observer By: Sophie Novack Texas has the highest overall uninsured rate in the country, the highest rate of uninsured kids and the highest rate of uninsured women of childbearing age. Yet the Legislature is on track to wrap up for the next two years without passing bills to expand coverage… Meanwhile, a study released Wednesday found that Texas has…
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Trump Administration Leverages Medical Loss Ratio Requirements to Help Address Problem of Drug “Spread Pricing” in Medicaid Managed Care
In a welcome move, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued highly technical guidance on May 15, 2019 which could help address the inappropriate use of “spread pricing” by pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) in Medicaid managed care. Many managed care plans contract with PBMs to administer the pharmacy benefit for their enrollees. But…
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New MACPAC Members Named
May 21, 2019 Inside Health Policy Melanie Bella, the founding director of the Medicare-Medicaid Coordination Office at CMS, was named on Monday (May 20) as the new chair of the congressional Medicaid advisory commission, and two new members — health care lawyer Tom Barker and Georgetown University professor Tricia Brooks — were appointed to the…
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New Research Finds Medicaid Gains Help Lead to Healthier Mothers and Babies
(Following is the press release we issued today on a new report “Medicaid Expansion Fills the Gaps in Maternal Health Coverage Leading to Healthier Mothers and Babies” by Adam Searing and Donna Cohen Ross.) Medicaid helps fill the gaps in maternal health coverage and leads to healthier babies and mothers, according to a new report…
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Georgetown CCF’s Tricia Brooks Appointed to MACPAC
We at Georgetown CCF are so thrilled to announce that today the Comptroller General of the United States and head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) appointed Georgetown University Center for Children and Families Senior Fellow Tricia Brooks to the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC). The Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009…
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Social Media Toolkit for Maternal Health Report
Social Media Posts A new @georgetownccf report finds Medicaid expansion helps sharply reduce the uninsured rate for women of childbearing age, reduces infant mortality, and helps women get better care before they become pregnant. #MaternalHealthMatters https://bit.ly/2JPfa9N New study finds Medicaid expansion plays a crucial role in reducing maternal mortality and infant mortality rates, and…
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Research Update: A Spotlight on Children’s Oral Health
This week, I am reading the latest research on children’s oral health. Some of the notable findings include: poorer children’s oral health leads to worse academic performance, there continue to be disparities in access to child preventive oral health services, and providing dental benefits to parents may have a positive impact on children’s use of…
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Kids Coverage at Risk in Arizona
Kids coverage is again at risk in Arizona, as lawmakers there fight over whether to freeze enrollment in the state’s CHIP program (“KidsCare”), which currently covers 34,316 children. An unusual Arizona law requires the KidsCare program to freeze enrollment if the federal matching rate drops below 100%. Because a temporary increase in the CHIP matching…
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Medicaid Expansion Fills Gaps in Maternal Health Coverage Leading to Healthier Mothers and Babies
Introduction Disruptions in health coverage are associated with adverse health consequences. This is especially true for women in their childbearing years, when a pregnancy means having health coverage is even more important. The stakes are high as the care a woman receives during pregnancy is critical to her own health, as well as to the…
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Trump Administration Proposes to Make Fewer Low-Income Individuals and Families Eligible for Medicaid and CHIP Over Time
The Trump Administration has proposed to change how the Census Bureau’s Official Poverty Measure (OPM) is adjusted annually for inflation. While this sounds like a highly technical change, it would do considerable harm. That is because the OPM is used to set the federal poverty line, which in turn is used to determine income eligibility…
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Leading Children’s Health and Medical Organizations Sound Alarm on Drop in Child Medicaid/CHIP Enrollment
As Tricia Brooks uncovered in her recent blog, the number of children enrolled in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) nationwide fell by about 840,000 in 2018. In response to this news, the American Academy of Pediatrics, Children’s Defense Fund, Children’s Dental Health Project, Children’s Hospital Association, Family Voices, First Focus on Children, Georgetown…
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Tennessee to become first state to seek approval for Medicaid block grant
Fierce Healthcare By: Paige Minemyer Tennessee legislators have approved a bill that would make the state the first to request approval from the Trump administration for a Medicaid block grant. … The White House has also built Medicaid block grants into its budget proposals for 2019 and 2020, making clear that it backs the idea.…
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Tennessee Becomes First State To Embrace Block Grants For Medicaid Funding
Wall Street Journal By: Stephanie Armour Republican Gov. Bill Lee is expected to sign legislation soon seeking Trump administration approval to turn federal funding for the state’s Medicaid program into a lump-sum grant. Currently, Tennessee, like other states, gets open-ended federal dollars because the government matches a percentage of state spending. … “It’s extremely foolish…
