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Trump Administration Hands States Another Tool for Dismantling Preexisting Condition Protections
Last week, the Trump administration issued long-anticipated guidance regarding the Affordable Care Act’s Section 1332 “innovation waiver” program. The release rebrands and creatively reimagines the ACA program (they’re now “State Relief and Empowerment” waivers), breaking dramatically with past policy and, arguably, with the statute it purports to interpret. In the administration’s view, the ACA permits states to…
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Shepherd’s Hope and Other Free Clinics Are Making Up for Florida’s Decision to Not Expand Medicaid
90.7 WMFE By: Danielle Prieur Healthcare is one of the most important things for Floridians this election. That’s according to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll. While voters decide on which candidate has the best plan, free clinics bear the brunt of Florida’s uninsured. … Shepherd’s Hope serves uninsured patients in Orange and Seminole Counties. And…
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Will Ron DeSantis’ or Andrew Gillum’s health care plan cover more people? Experts weigh in.
Tampa Bay Times By: Emily L. Mahoney During last week’s final Florida governor’s debate between Republican Ron DeSantis and Democrat Andrew Gillum, an ugly back-and-forth over alleged ethical lapses grabbed headlines. It also overshadowed what might have otherwise been the news of the night: DeSantis announced he had uploaded his long-awaited health care plan to…
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Advocates Have a Key Role to Play Encouraging Early Childhood Sector to Leverage Medicaid to Meet Children’s Developmental Needs
Medicaid and early childhood care providers, including Head Start, child care centers, and home visiting programs, serve many of the same low-income children, yet the two systems rarely collaborate to improve overall population health. Reaching vulnerable children in their early years of physical, social and emotional development is essential to setting them on a path…
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More Rural Hospitals Closing in States Refusing Medicaid Coverage Expansion
The University of North Carolina’s Rural Health Research Program tracks closures of rural hospitals across the country. From 2010 to the present there are six states with five or more rural hospital closures. Texas leads with a stunning 15 rural hospitals closed, followed closely by Tennessee (9 rural hospitals closed) and Georgia (7 rural hospitals…
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States Lean In as the Federal Government Cuts Back: Navigator and Advertising Funding for the ACA’s Sixth Open Enrollment
On November 1, the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) insurance marketplaces will launch their sixth enrollment season. This year, the challenges they face may be greater than laster year, with the loss of the individual mandate penalty as an enrollment incentive and the emergence of a parallel, unregulated market that could siphon away healthy enrollees. Yet the Trump administration has…
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Archived Webinar: EPSDT for Providers and Advocates: When to Engage the Legal Community Webinar
In this webinar, presenters discuss medical and legal partnerships and Medicaid EPSDT advocacy, working with legal services lawyers to help children access medical care, and more.
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Medicaid Work Requirement Waivers: Time for CMS to Hit the Pause Button
Yesterday members of the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC – a Congressional agency) received a briefing from staff on the implementation of the Arkansas work requirement waiver. Staff reviewed the latest data from the state as well as the findings from their own inquiries to various stakeholders. The presentation confirmed my reading…
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Are you Ready for Open Enrollment? Updated Navigator Resource Guide will Help You Understand Policy Changes
On November 1, the sixth open enrollment period begins for marketplace coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). We at the Georgetown University Center on Health Insurance Reforms will soon re-launch our updated Navigator Resource Guide, made possible by the support of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The Guide provides information on recent policy changes, a list of enrollment…
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States discover news ways to finance Medicaid expansion
ABC News By: Shefali Luthra Last year, nearly 60 percent of Maine residents voted to expand the state’s Medicaid program — an option provided by the Affordable Care Act that would extend health insurance to tens of thousands of the state’s low-income people. … Rather than being a cash drain, many health policy researchers and…
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The MOM Model: New CMS Initiative Aims to Improve Systems of Care for Pregnant and Postpartum Women with Opioid Use Disorder
The CMS Innovation Center announced a new tool to help address the devastating impact our nation’s growing opioid crisis is having on pregnant and postpartum women and their infants. The Maternal Opioid Misuse (MOM) model is the latest approach in CMS’s strategy to tackle the opioid crisis in a key population group, expectant and new…
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How Would Medicaid Provisions of New Law to Address Opioid Epidemic Impact Children?
Today President Trump signed the “SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act” into law. SUPPORT is an acronym for “Substance Use—Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment.” The bill, which passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in both the House (396-14) and the Senate (98-1), is 250 pages long. It affects a broad array of federal…
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Archived Webinar: Helping State Medicaid Programs Better Address Rising Drug Costs
This webinar reviews overall drug pricing trends, current beneficiary access protections, effectiveness of Medicaid Drug Rebate Program, and state strategies to address rising Medicaid prescription drug costs while maintaining access to needed drugs.
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Expanding Medicaid saves parents, children
The Grand Island Independent By: John J. Vann As a pediatrician, I work every day to ensure children receive the care they need to have the best chance at a healthy life. I also know that children are more likely to be healthy if their parents have access to health coverage. Nebraska can take an…
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What happens if Idaho expands Medicaid? Experts can’t be sure. Here are their guesses
Idaho Statesman By: Devon Downey, Melissa Davlin, and Audrey Dutton A consulting firm examining how much Medicaid expansion would cost Idaho significantly revised its analysis over the course of six drafts in a one-month span this year, from June 15 to July 19. The Milliman firm swung between an estimated 10-year cost of $105 million,…
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In Medicaid expansion, small Idaho hospitals see a potential lifeline
Idaho Statesman By: Audrey Dutton and Melissa Davlin Idaho’s small-town hospitals have their own reason to back Medicaid expansion: In some cases, it may keep their doors open. After years of stalled debate in the Idaho Legislature, expansion will go to a statewide public vote Nov. 6. Among other arguments, proponents have urged Idahoans to…
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Medicaid expansion and the fate of Obamacare are at the heart of the heated Georgia gubernatorial race
CNBC By: Emma Newburger A national battle over whether to extend public health insurance to low-income adults is at the center of a tightly contested gubernatorial race in Georgia, where hospitals and drug stores are closing across the Republican-controlled state’s rural southern and western counties. Georgia is one of eight states that opted not to…
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Events Promote Health Care for Utah’s Latino Communities
Public News Service By: Katherine Davis-Young Cities in Utah and nationwide this month are promoting health care in Latin American communities. The American health-care system is complicated and can seem even more so for people new to the country or who don’t speak English. Yehemy Zavala Orosco, preventive-health manager for Comunidades Unidas, said the Latin…
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Got Education Metrics? City Health Dashboard Supports Data-Driven Decision-Making for Student Health and Success
Maximizing the educational experience and success of every child in America must be a priority to create healthier, more equitable communities. But how can community leaders make sense of the plethora of data that exists in order to make sound decisions that promote healthy child and adolescent development? Fortunately, a new resource, the City Health…
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What Medicaid Can Do for Our Nation’s Youngest Children
The science is clear: We have a critical opportunity to reach young children during a period of rapid development, with the brain forming one million new neural connections every second. These earliest years are full of possibilities equally as powerful as the vulnerabilities that greatly influence children’s lifelong trajectories. Anyone who’s had the pleasure of chatting…
