X

Say Ahhh!

  • HHS Secretary Becerra Approves Illinois Waiver Request to Extend Postpartum Medicaid Coverage

    Maggie Clark

    New mothers in Illinois will now be able to stay eligible for Medicaid and CHIP coverage for one year after delivery under a Medicaid Section 1115 waiver approved today by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid. The approval allows Illinois to receive federal matching funds for providing an additional 10 months of pregnancy-related Medicaid and…

  • Advancing Postpartum Coverage in Medicaid: Waiver or SPA?

    Joan Alker

    The recently enacted American Rescue Plan Act has many new opportunities and important provisions that we are still absorbing and unpacking. One key change, as readers of SayAhh! know, is the new state option to provide 12 months of postpartum Medicaid and CHIP coverage to women after the end of their pregnancy, well beyond the…

  • California’s Medicaid Breakthrough: An Opportunity to Advance Children’s Social and Emotional Health

    Guest

    By Sarah Crow and Christina Altmayer Revamping Medicaid policies to improve young children’s social and emotional health and address health care inequities is particularly critical in California, where over half of children ages 0 to 5 have Medicaid coverage (known as Medi-Cal, in California), and two-thirds are children of color. California ranks near the bottom…

  • Some States’ Letters to CMS on Medicaid Work Requirements Double Down

    Allexa Gardner

    Last month, CMS began taking steps to get rid of Medicaid section 1115 work requirement waivers as my colleague Joan Alker has written about. The Biden Administration sent letters to states with approved work requirements that “preliminarily” disapproved the policy on the basis of the COVID-19 pandemic and uncertainty of its aftermath on health and…

  • Implementing American Rescue Plan’s 12-month Postpartum Medicaid Coverage: Federal and State Actions

    Elisabeth Wright Burak

    Federal matching funds for the American Rescue Plan Act’s new state Medicaid option to provide 12 full months of postpartum coverage won’t be available *officially* to states until April 2022. (Say Ahhh! Readers know that the Families First Coronavirus Response Act requires states to keep all Medicaid beneficiaries enrolled, including postpartum women, so no coverage…

  • Medicaid Wars: Rescind and Withdraw (Episode II)

    Andy Schneider

    The Biden Administration has a long list of bad Medicaid policies to unwind.  As chronicled in Episode I, the groundwork for the unwinding was laid in a Presidential Executive Order, “Strengthening Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act,” issued on January 28. Among other things, the E.O. directs the Secretary of HHS to review section 1115 demonstrations and…

  • House Hearing Will Examine the Looming Fiscal Cliff for Medicaid Programs in the Territories

    Edwin Park

    On Wednesday, March 17, 2021, the Health Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold an important hearing on “Averting a Crisis: Protecting Access to Health Care in the U.S. Territories.”  In December 2019, Congress provided Puerto Rico and the other territories — American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S.…

  • American Rescue Plan is Lifting Children Out of Poverty: Will it Affect Their Medicaid Eligibility?

    Joan Alker

    An extraordinary and historic moment happened last week for children and families when President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan into law. The bill is the 3rd piece of emergency legislation enacted since the advent of the COVID-19 global pandemic, which has upended the country in so many ways. It is hard to imagine that…

  • Optional 12 Months Postpartum Medicaid Coverage Leaves Opportunity to do More

    Maggie Clark

    Tucked inside the American Rescue Plan signed into law by President Biden last week is a Medicaid state plan option allowing states to offer pregnancy-related Medicaid and CHIP coverage for one year after the end of pregnancy, extending coverage well beyond the current cutoff of 60 days postpartum. The option, which is the result of…

  • American Rescue Plan Act Will Strengthen Public and Private Health Insurance

    Edwin Park

    The House and Senate have passed the American Rescue Plan and the President plans to sign it tomorrow bringing critical relief to America’s families. In addition to providing relief to unemployed workers, pulling millions of children and families out of poverty and helping school districts address learning loss, the COVID-19 relief legislation will strengthen both…

  • Biden Administration Actions on Public Charge Rules Help Restore Hope for Immigrant Families

    Kelly Whitener

    This week brought some much-needed good news on public charge, which has immigration advocates singing Prince’s classic hit, “1999,” in homage to a return to the longstanding public charge rules also known as the 1999 field guidance. The good news is certainly worthy of a princely celebration, but some may be wondering how we got…

  • Too Many Babies Miss Out on Medicaid Infant Coverage, Promising Practices Point the Way for States

    Guest

    By: Kay Johnson For more than 25 years, federal law has guaranteed enrollment for babies born to Medicaid beneficiary mothers, known as deemed newborn coverage, which begins at birth and continues uninterrupted through the first year of life. Passed with bipartisan Congressional support under the Deficit Reduction Act of 1984 (P.L. 98-369), the purpose of…

  • Kaiser Family Foundation and Georgetown CCF Release 50-State Survey on Medicaid and CHIP Eligibility and Enrollment

    Cathy Hope

    The 2021 Annual 50-State Survey on Medicaid and CHIP Eligibility and Enrollment conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) and CCF is now available. As in previous years, the report confirms eligibility levels for children, pregnant women, parents and expansion adults. However, in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the survey was scaled back in…

  • Federal Incentives to Expand Medicaid and 2021 State Legislative Session End Dates

    Adam Searing

    Congress debates and looks likely to pass a COVID relief bill this month that includes substantial new financial incentives for Medicaid non-expansion states to finally extend health coverage to lower income parents and workers as 39 other states (including DC) have done. States that expand would get two years of increased Medicaid payments based on…

  • Health Policy and the First Amendment: Protecting public’s right to be heard in the state legislative process

    Adam Searing

    Georgetown University Collaboration Defends Rights, Facilitates Civic Engagement Recently here at the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy, I’ve had the pleasure of working with some of my colleagues at the Georgetown University Law School in the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection. Professor Mary McCord and Senior Counsel Annie Owens are respected attorneys…

  • More Evidence that Medicaid Expansion Linked to Employment and Education Gains

    Kyrstin Racine

    I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard people say “Medicaid expansion will encourage people not to work,” despite the fact that multiple studies have demonstrated just the opposite. We know that before the pandemic, most adults enrolled in Medicaid who could work did so, and the majority of adults who weren’t working reported…

  • House-Passed American Rescue Plan Act Would Spur Medicaid Expansion and Promote Maternal Health

    Edwin Park

    [Editor’s Note: President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan into law on March 11, 2021. See Georgetown University CCF/CHIR brief for a summary of final health coverage provisions.] On February 27, the House passed the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (H.R. 1319), its COVID-19 relief reconciliation bill.  The bill includes a number of provisions…

  • Research Update: NBER Studies Look at Medicaid Expansion and Mortality and Impact of Cost-Sharing On Prescription Drug Use

    Aubrianna Osorio

    Two recent working papers from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) demonstrate how health policy decisions can affect mortality.  The first examines how the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion reduces mortality and the second examines the mortality effects of cost-sharing for prescription drugs. Medicaid and Mortality: New Evidence from Linked Survey and Administrative Data,…

  • Medicaid Managed Care: 2020 Results for the “Big Five”

    Andy Schneider

    [View this blog for an update on Medicaid Managed Care earnings.] Corporate earnings statements for 2020 are now out. It was a very good year for the five largest health care companies in the Medicaid managed care market: Aetna/CVS Health; Anthem; Centene; Molina; and UnitedHealthcare. Each company experienced an increase in Medicaid enrollment between December…

  • Workplace Wellness Programs Have Overlooked Health Equity

    Guest

    By Julie Zuckerbrod* In 2017, many food service and maintenance staff at Yale University received a notice about a mandatory health screening and “coaching” program. These employees and their spouses were automatically enrolled in the Yale Health Expectations Program (HEP), which required them to complete a series of health services like physical exams, blood tests, and…