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MACPAC Releases Medicaid Eligibility, Enrollment and Renewal Case Studies Examining New Data-Driven Processes
Before the holidays, MACPAC and its contractor, SHADAC, (the State Health Access Data Assistance Center at the University of Minnesota) released findings of a study that examined the status of the new data-driven enrollment and renewal processes enacted as part of the Affordable Care Act. The case studies report on how six states – Arizona,…
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Critics argue SC Medicaid plan to add work requirements for adults will mostly harm moms
The Post and Courier By: Lauren Sausser South Carolina adults who qualify for low-income Medicaid coverage may need to prove later this year they have a job or risk losing their health benefits. Gov. Henry McMaster’s Medicaid agency is officially pursuing the rule change more than a year after President Donald Trump’s administration announced it would…
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Thousands of SC parents would lose health insurance in Medicaid plan, study says
The State By: Jamie Self Thousands of South Carolina’s poorest parents will lose health insurance under a state proposal to impose work requirements on Medicaid recipients, a new study says. Between 5,000 and 14,000 S.C. parents would lose their Medicaid coverage in the first year such a policy is in force, according to a report…
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What Does the Partial Government Shutdown Mean for Medicaid and CHIP?
A year ago, the entire federal government was shut down for three days over a dispute about DACA. My colleague Kelly Whitener explained the implications of that full shutdown for Medicaid and CHIP. We are now in the 14th day of a partial government shutdown over a dispute about funding for a border wall. Unlike the full…
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New Report Finds South Carolina’s Medicaid Waiver Would Leave Thousands of Poor Parents Uninsured
[Editor’s Note: On March 4, 2019 South Carolina posted a revised application for state public comment.] Just before the holidays, South Carolina posted its application for new work-related reporting rules for very low-income parents and caretaker relatives with incomes below 67 percent of the poverty line who are insured through Medicaid. Today we partnered with South Carolina…
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The rate of uninsured children is growing. We must stop it.
America Magazine By: Editorial Board In November the Georgetown Center for Children and Families announced that the number of uninsured children in the United States went up for the first time in nearly a decade. While 7.6 million children were uninsured in 2008, by 2016 that figure had dropped to 3.6 million. But in 2017, 300,000 children…
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The Most-Read Health Affairs Blog Posts Of 2018
Health Affairs In the partisan world of health policy, CHIP, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, had always stood out as a bipartisan exception. However, in 2017 through the early days of 2018, Congress let CHIP funding lapse for an unprecedented 114 days. After funding was restored, Tricia Brooks discussed in detail why it took so…
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More children in state and nation lack health insurance; Kentucky’s uninsured rate rose in 2017
Northern Kentucky Tribune By: Melissa Patrick For the first time in nearly a decade, the number of uninsured children in the United States and Kentucky increased, according to a report from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. From 2016 to 2017, the number of uninsured U.S. children rose by 276,000, to nearly 4 million. About 5 percent…
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Mass. Not Immune To Nationwide Rise In Uninsured Children, Report Finds
WBUR 90.9 By: Miriam Wasser Massachusetts prides itself on its healthcare system and coverage rates. But, for the first time in at least a decade, the number of uninsured children here increased in a statistically significant way, a report from the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute finds. Though the numbers are small in absolute terms — 15,000 uninsured…
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Low-Income Families with Children Will Be Harmed by South Carolina’s Proposed Medicaid Work Reporting Requirement
[Editor’s Note: On March 4, 2019 South Carolina posted a revised application for state public comment.] Introduction South Carolina officials are proposing that very low-income parents and caregivers who qualify for Medicaid fulfill new reporting requirements to show they are working at least 80 hours a month or participating in job- training activities — or…
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Call for Nominations for Child and Adult Core Set Annual Review Workgroup
Each year CMS is required to review both the Child and Adult Core Sets of Health Quality Measures in Medicaid and CHIP. To inform the effort, CMS and its partners convene a multi-stakeholder Medicaid workgroup to provide guidance on the core sets. Mathematica Research is coordinating the recruitment of individuals to participate in the 2019…
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California’s Mandate to Treat Children on Medi-Cal Is Now a Little Clearer
The Medicaid Act, the federal law governing California’s Medi-Cal Program, has long contained specific benefit requirements for covering children and youth under the age of 21 through the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic and Treatment – or “EPSDT” – services mandate. Despite its unmemorable name, this federal mandate critically identifies that children and adolescents are…
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More Arkansans Lose Medicaid Health Coverage Just Before the Holidays
Earlier this week, Arkansas released the latest round of data showing that their misguided policy requiring adults to prove they are working in order to retain Medicaid coverage is continuing to fail. In December, 4,655 people lost health insurance, bringing the total coverage losses to nearly 17,000 so far, though thousands more will lose coverage…
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CMS Announces New Connecting Kids to Coverage Outreach and Enrollment Grants
CMS announced the availability of $48 million in “Connecting Kids to Coverage” outreach and enrollment grants and not a moment too soon. As we recently reported, our nation’s progress on children’s health coverage actually reversed course last year registering the first statistically significant increase in the child uninsured rate in a decade. As a majority…
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Texas Court Decision on the Affordable Care Act: Why Medicaid Expansion Naysayers and Affordable Coverage Opponents Should Be Worried
The Texas federal district court decision striking down the entire Affordable Care Act (ACA) in response to a lawsuit brought by a group of Republican-led states is a radical decision that both conservative and progressive legal experts see as extreme, highly flawed, and unlikely to prevail on appeal. Coming after an election in which Medicaid,…
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Troubling Trend Emerges for Young Children’s Health Coverage, Threatens Healthy Lifelong Development
Last year saw the nation’s first increase in the number of uninsured children in nearly a decade, and young children were not immune to this troubling trend. Just as the rate of uninsured children increased on a statistically significant basis for all children under age 19 between 2016 and 2017, so it increased significantly for…
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Orrin Hatch’s Long And Complicated Legacy Of American Health Care
KUER 90.1 By: Erik Neumann Orrin Hatch authored or co-sponsored over 700 bills — more than any other living lawmaker — making him one of the health care industry’s biggest champions. As prolific as he may have been, Hatch can’t claim sole credit for his influence over the industry as his most significant legislation came by working with…
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More State Medicaid Programs Covering Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Services
Good news: More state Medicaid programs covered infant and early childhood mental health screenings, diagnoses and treatments in 2018 than in 2017. The results from the 2018 update of the National Center for Children in Poverty’s 50-state survey, “How States Use Medicaid to Cover Key Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Services,” illustrate the growing…
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Coverage for Children Under 6 Reversed Course Between 2016 and 2017
For the first time in nearly a decade, the rate of young children without health insurance significantly increased between 2016 and 2017, reversing years of steady progress in reducing the nation’s uninsured rate for children, particularly in the early years. Mirroring national trends for children age 18 and under, state Medicaid coverage rates for children…
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How One Company Is Making Millions Off Trump’s War on the Poor
Mother Jones By: Tracie McMillan … The more likely outcome of a complicated eligibility system, regardless of who runs it, is that people leave the program, losing insurance and suffering the health effects that will cause. In June, Arkansas became the first state to implement work requirements for its Medicaid clients, spending about $7.6 million…
