Say Ahhh!
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Child Uninsured Rate Increases Slightly: Full Impact of Medicaid Unwinding Not Yet Evident
Check out your state’s numbers on our state data hub. Every year we look closely at the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey health insurance coverage data to see what is happening to coverage rates overall and especially for children. The data, which are released in early September, reflect survey responses collected in the prior…
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Courts Weigh Protections and Access to Health Care for DACA Recipients
The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy continues to come under legal attack despite more than ten years of proven success – helping people who arrived in the US as children graduate from high school, go to college, and start their families and careers here. There are more than 500,000 DACA recipients (and many…
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States Make Strides, Share Lessons in Financing Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health
By: Alex Busuito In the first five years of life, children develop the social, emotional, and cognitive capacities that are the foundation for lifelong health and wellbeing. A significant financial investment in a robust system of care to support the mental health of babies, young children, and their caregivers goes a long way towards increasing…
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No Child Should Be Uninsured: New Bill Would Cut Medicaid Red Tape and Reduce Harmful Gaps in Coverage
At Georgetown CCF we have been thinking about a day when no child in the United States is uninsured since our inception 19 years ago. Substantial progress has been made over the past two decades with some ups and downs along the way. However, as the recent Medicaid unwinding made abundantly clear, this day will…
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New Report Explores Insights from Medicaid Unwinding on How to Protect Children’s Coverage
The Urban Institute and Georgetown CCF have released a new report highlighting ways to improve the Medicaid/CHIP redetermination process for children emanating from key lessons learned during the unwinding of the Medicaid continuous coverage protection. These insights are based on interviews of representatives in 8 state Medicaid agencies, offering a unique perspective directly from the…
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Massachusetts Governor Signs a Maternal Health Bill Expanding Access to Midwifery, Birth Centers and Doulas
On August 23rd, Governor Maura Healy of Massachusetts signed an act promoting access to midwifery care and out-of-hospital birth options into law. This comprehensive maternal health bill focused on expanding midwifery coverage to include certified professional midwives (CPMs), birth centers, doulas, and screening and treatment options for postpartum depression. MassHealth is Massachusetts Medicaid and CHIP…
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New Federal Funding Opportunity for State Medicaid and CHIP Programs to Support Continuity of Care for Justice-Involved Individuals
Last week, many in the Medicaid and CHIP community were focused on CMS’s announcement of guidance to states on Medicaid EPSDT requirements (and for good reason). However, we also wanted to make sure folks saw the new notice of funding opportunity for planning grants to state Medicaid and CHIP agencies to develop operational capabilities to…
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CMS Issues Guidance to States on Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic and Treatment Requirements
Today, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released much-anticipated guidance on Medicaid’s Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic and Treatment (EPSDT) requirements. For those who don’t live in Medicaid jargon land, EPSDT is the pediatric benefit in Medicaid and establishes a higher standard for children than adults covered by Medicaid. Most, but not all,…
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Medicaid/CHIP Mental Health Parity: Latest Federal Actions Explained
Last week, the Departments of Labor (DOL), Health and Human Services (HHS), and the Treasury released their much-anticipated final rules to strengthen the enforcement of the federal Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA). As highlighted by the DOL, the final rules, among other provisions, make clear that group health plans and health insurance…
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Unpacking the Unwinding: Medicaid to Marketplace Coverage Transitions
By Emma Walsh-Alker Background As Medicaid unwinding draws to a close, millions of people have had to find new health coverage options, many of them through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplaces. What do we know about how they have fared, and whether state efforts to smooth coverage transitions have been successful? Following the April 2023…
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What State-Level Data is Available for the 988 Crisis Line?
As we wrote about earlier this summer, the national mental health crisis line, 988, recently celebrated its second anniversary and has received nearly 11 million contacts since June 2022. In recognition of National Suicide Prevention Month, we wanted to take some time to delve deeper into the state-level 988 data to see what it can…
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State Momentum, New Tools, Implementation Questions on Multi-Year Continuous Eligibility
CCF and its founders have long raised the opportunity to provide multi-year continuous eligibility for young children in Medicaid and CHIP, and have tracked its progress since Oregon and Washington first proposed the policy for children from birth to kindergarten in 2022. (See our latest map and resources to track state progress for children.) Our…
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As More States Allow Medicaid Reimbursements for New Pregnancy-Related Services, Promoting Access Remains a Challenge
KFF and the Health Management Associates (HMA) released their 23rd Annual Medicaid Budget Survey for State Fiscal Years 2023 and 2024 in collaboration with the National Association of Medicaid Directors (NAMD). This year’s survey includes findings about challenges and strategies in expanding non-traditional pregnancy-related services, such as doula care. In the U.S., Medicaid finances more…
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Federal Judge in Tennessee Sides with Individuals Terminated from Medicaid, Finds Numerous Violations in Tennessee Medicaid Eligibility Process
“Poor, disabled, and otherwise disadvantaged Tennesseans should not require luck, perseverance, or zealous lawyering to receive healthcare benefits they are entitled to under the law.” How’s that for an opening sentence to a judicial opinion? That’s how an August 26, 2024, decision in a class action case called A.M.C. v. Stephen Smith started – and…
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Healthy Kids Need a Healthy Democracy: The Role of Enrollment Assisters in Nonpartisan Voter Registration Efforts
By: Maria Bobrowski-Artola In the realm of public health, there is a growing recognition that civic engagement is not just a societal responsibility but a vital component of overall health. With National Voter Registration Day on the horizon, we have a unique chance to make a significant difference in the health and well-being of our…
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GOP Push to Make Trump Tax Cuts Permanent Makes Medicaid Top Target for Draconian Cuts
I have been writing about the many conservative and Congressional Republican plans and proposals to make draconian cuts to Medicaid. The centerpiece of several prominent plans — Project 2025, the Republican Study Committee fiscal year 2025 (RSC) budget and the fiscal year 2025 House GOP budget resolution — is to cap and deeply cut federal…
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CMS Gives Options to States with “Unusual Circumstances” to Extend Unwinding Renewals, Redistributing Renewals, and Deal with Pending Renewals
CMS has released new guidance for states that are not yet done with the unwinding. Due to the unprecedented nature of the unwinding – exacerbated by workforce challenges and resulting in an uneven and unsustainable renewal volume in many states – CMS concludes that the unwinding constitutes an administrative emergency that justifies exceptions to the…
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North Carolina Finds Innovative New Way to Provide Families with Needed Medical Debt Relief
As a nonprofit health attorney over a decade ago I worked in North Carolina on pushing hospital systems to eliminate the practice of suing lower income patients for medical debt and associated abuses like pursuing liens against the houses of poor families. A Pulitzer-prize nominated newspaper series detailed the situation at the time in North…
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Future of Medicaid Likely Hinges on Election but Voters Are Not Yet Hearing About Candidates’ Views
By Joan Alker and Michael Perry We’ve worked on Medicaid policy and/or public opinion research for three decades now and have observed its growing importance as the backbone of our health care system – now covering approximately 80 million people — as well as its centrality to voters. Medicare and Social Security are often described…
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Biden Administration Proposes Rule To Ban Medical Debt From Credit Reporting
By Sheela Ranganathan and Maanasa Kona, Georgetown University Center on Health Insurance Reforms Amidst the growing interest among policymakers to protect patients from medical debt and its negative downstream effects, in April 2023, the three credit reporting agencies (CRAs)—Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion—voluntarily agreed to stop reporting any medical debt under $500. This April, the Consumer Financial…
