Resources
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House Releases Health Reform Bill: A Quick Look at the Child and Family Provisions
Yesterday the House Leadership released its merged health reform bill, The Affordable Health Care for Americans Act of 2009. It includes some noteworthy changes with respect to kids and families from the previous version of the bill. Here are some highlights: Raises the mandatory Medicaid threshold from 133% to 150% FPL. CBO estimates that by…
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Women and Health Reform: The Latest Data
Judy Waxman, Vice President for Health and Reproductive Rights, National Women’s Law Center This week, we released a new report, Still Nowhere to Turn: Insurance Companies Treat Women Like a Pre-Existing Condition, uncovering the latest data on the disparities women face in health care coverage. Some of our findings included: The extent of gender rating —…
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Health Reform Bill’s Pediatric Dental Benefit Could Have A Tremendous Impact on Children’s Health
Meg Booth, Deputy Executive Director, Children’s Health Dental Project In the past months of health reform debate, we at Children’s Dental Health Project have continuously heard the surprise and elation that all of the House and Senate Committees debating this issue included a dental benefit for children as part of their proposals. The disappointment later…
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NBC Nightly News Covers Cut to Parent Coverage in Arizona
By Joe Touschner As any parent who has faced the challenge of being sick and trying to fulfill their parenting duties will tell you – the well-being of children is highly dependent on the well-being of their parents. That’s why it is so important that federal health reform include affordable health care options that will…
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Federal Options for Improving Public Program Enrollment & Retention
Author: Dawn Horner United Hospital Fund — Presentation Document October 2009
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Children in Health Reform: What’s at Stake?
By Jocelyn Guyer Moms Rising — Presentation Document October 2009
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Setting the Record Straight on Medicaid and Access
In the past few months, opponents of health reform have made many false claims about various aspects of legislation moving through Congress. The most recent example that comes to mind are the charges made about Medicaid during mark-up of the Senate Finance Committee bill. Opponents slung a lot of mud at the Medicaid program and…
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New CHIPRA Dental Standards: A Victory for Kids!
CMS released the latest in a series of state health official letters providing guidance on CHIPRA implementation. This seventh letter focuses on the new mandatory dental provisions for separate CHIP programs, as well as the option these states have to provide a stand-alone dental plan to children who are insured or underinsured but would otherwise…
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FMAP – A Four-Letter Acronym that Inspires Controversy
By Martha Heberlein As a shared federal-state program, the distribution of financing in Medicaid has long been an area of debate. Whenever changes in the program are discussed (or as in the debate over the stimulus package, increases are considered), distributional questions come up. How much should the federal government pay versus the states? How…
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States are Not Waiting for Health Reform Passage to Move Forward on Children’s Health Coverage
By Martha Heberlein Today, three more states moved forward with their plans to expand affordable health coverage to more uninsured children, implementing expansions they passed earlier in the year. These three states are among the twenty-three that improved child and family health coverage this year. Starting today: Uninsured Alabama children in families earning up to…
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HHS Awards $40 Million in Outreach and Enrollment Grants
Yesterday, Secretary Sebelius awarded $40 million to 69 grantees in 41 states and the District of Columbia to find and enroll children who are uninsured but eligible for Medicaid or CHIP. This is the first round of outreach and enrollment grants funded through the Children’s Health Insurance Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA), which was signed by President…
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Senate Finance Committee Moves Forward
Its been a busy week here in Washington with action on health care reform. All eyes were on the Senate Finance Committee, which, as Jocelyn Guyer blogged about last week, started working on their markup of the bill. The Committee is in its second week of mark-up with hundreds of amendments and is likely to…
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Digging in Deeper on the Question of Affordable Premiums in the Senate Finance Committee Mark
By Martha Heberlein What is “affordable” has long been a hot-button issue in the health reform debate. In fact, much of the criticism following the release of the Senate Finance Committee mark centered on this very question. Although there is no consensus on the definition, looking at how much low-income families in public program currently…
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Senate Finance Committee Moves Forward: Key Issues for Child and Family Coverage
By Jocelyn Guyer The Senate Finance Committee began its markup yesterday and moved into high gear today, taking votes for the first time on amendments. Senator Baucus released his mark last Wednesday, September 15th and was immediately deluged with over 500 amendments. Yesterday, he released a revised version that incorporates some of the amendments. From…
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CHIPRA Can Help Improve Health Care for Non-English Speakers
Jon Peacock, Wisconsin Council on Children and Families The Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA) approved by Congress early this year gives states financial assistance and policy options that help states maintain and improve coverage of kids. One source of financial assistance that has gotten less attention is an enhanced federal match rate for…
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Enrollment Reopens in California’s CHIP Program
Just two months after freezing enrollment in the Healthy Families Program and initiating a waitlist, enrollment has reopened in California Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). A budget shortfall of just under $200 million has been plugged by a generous contribution from the state’s First Five Commission, increased family cost-sharing, and a new premium tax on…
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Postcards from CCF — Tennessee
This month, CCF is heading to Nashville, Tennessee to listen to the new beat coming out of “Music City, USA.” Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen recently changed his tune and announced that on March 1, enrollment will resume for CoverKids, the state’s CHIP program. The Governor had frozen enrollment in November but, after a public outcry,…
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Good News for Uninsured Children Should Jumpstart Health Reform
By Jocelyn Guyer In 2008, the number of uninsured children in the United States hit the lowest level in two decades. If Congress weren’t in the middle of a fierce debate on health reform, there would be time for everyone to celebrate a remarkable achievement and maybe even pause to reflect on how it was…
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Access to Care for Children in Medicaid
Medicaidʼs Substantial Coverage Role for Children Medicaid covers more than 23 million children, more than one-quarter of all children, and more than half of low income children.1 Between 1997 and 2006, the proportion of low-income uninsured children fell from to 23 percent to 15 percent;2 success that is largely attributable to the role that Medicaid…
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Is There Oral Health in Health Reform?
Author: Tricia Brooks New England Rural Oral Health Conference — Presentation Documents September 2009