Say Ahhh!
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Covering All Kids: A Vision for the Future
Once a source of national pride and a testament to the power of bipartisan cooperation, our children’s health coverage has now eroded – the number of uninsured children is going up after years of decline. It is time for policymakers at the state and federal level of both parties to rededicate themselves to covering all…
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Strong Opposition Emerges to Damaging Medicaid State Financing and Supplemental Payment Rule
As our CCF public comments and my Health Affairs blog post explain, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed “Fiscal Accountability” rule threatens to significantly alter how states finance their share of the cost of Medicaid programs and how states provide supplemental payments to hospitals, nursing homes, physicians and other health care providers.…
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SSA Launches A Stealth Assault on Medicaid Coverage for Children and Parents with Disabilities
As readers of Say Ahhh! know, children’s enrollment in Medicaid and CHIP is declining, and the number of uninsured children is increasing. There are a number of factors at play, including a “see-no-disenrollment, hear-no-disenrollment” posture from CMS Administrator Seema Verma. The Administrator is doubling down with an eligibility rule now under review at the Office…
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Fighting Fear with Facts: Here’s What the Supreme Court Ruling on Public Charge Injunction Means for Immigrant Families
Editor’s Note: On September 9, 2022, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a final rule called Public Charge Ground of Inadmissibility that will restore longstanding public charge policy effective December 23, 2022. Learn more in our factsheet. Earlier this week the Supreme Court issued a ruling to allow the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to implement…
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Medicaid Work Requirements and Beyond: CMS Administrator Tries a New Work-Around
For the past 3 years, CMS Administrator Seema Verma has been on a crusade to convert Medicaid from health insurance to a welfare program. The spear at the point of this attack has been work requirements, which, under the guise of “demonstrations,” she has sought to impose as a condition of eligibility for Medicaid coverage. …
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Leading Children’s Health Groups Oppose New Federal Guidance on Medicaid
Block grants and per capita caps would cause parents to lose coverage and put children and families’ health at risk The American Academy of Pediatrics, Children’s Defense Fund, Children’s Hospital Association, Family Voices, First Focus on Children, Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, March of Dimes and National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners issue…
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Statement by Joan Alker on Medicaid Block Grant/Per Capita Cap Guidance
Following is a statement by Georgetown University Center for Children and Families Executive Director Joan Alker regarding the Trump Administration’s Medicaid block grant/per capita cap guidance announcement: “The misguided, unlawful guidance issued by CMS today encourages states to gamble with the health and well-being of their residents and their budgets by trading in their guarantee…
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Georgia House Study Committee Recommendations Call for Medicaid Extension, Workforce Development to Support Infant and Toddler Social Emotional Health
Georgia, like most states, is facing a growing need for social and emotional health support for young children and families. During the past year, in response to concerns about prevention and early identification of mental health problems in children and adolescents in Georgia, a study committee comprised of five members of the state’s House of…
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New Resource Highlights What Works for Healthy Social and Emotional Development of Young Children
As more states look to support healthy social and emotional development of young children and their families, the experts at the National Center for Children in Poverty recently launched a database that combines descriptions of research-informed policies and programs that support infant and early childhood mental health with profiles of model states implementing them. The…
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CCF Submits Comments on Harmful Trump Administration Medicaid Financing and Supplemental Payment Rule
CCF has submitted public comments to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed “Fiscal Accountability” rule which could significantly change how states finance their share of the cost of Medicaid programs and how states provide supplemental payments to hospitals, nursing homes, physicians and other health care providers. As my recent Health Affairs blog…
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In Medicaid Expansion States, Fewer Young Children Go Uninsured
Thanks to developments since the start of the new year, this post can start with some good news for young children: three more states have made progress toward expanding Medicaid. Last week, Kansas Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly and Republican Sen. Jim Denning announced plans to move forward to with Medicaid expansion when the legislative session…
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Fact Checking CMS Administrator’s Claim on Outreach and Enrollment Efforts for Kids
In a recent interview on the PBS News Hour, Kaiser Health News reporter Sarah Varney asked CMS Administrator Seema Verma about steps the administration is taking to address the troubling increase in the number of uninsured children and its connection to the decrease in child enrollment in Medicaid and CHIP. Readers of SayAhhh! are already…
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Responding to Trump Administration’s Troubling Medicaid Financing and Supplemental Payment Rule
On November 18, 2019, the Trump Administration issued a proposed Medicaid “Fiscal Accountability” rule that seriously threatens to upend state budgets and reduce beneficiaries’ access to needed care. The proposed rule, if finalized, could thus harm Medicaid beneficiaries, including children and families, as well as their health care providers, in most states. As Cindy Mann…
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The New Year Brings Good News to Uninsured Idahoans; Providers are Ready to Go
With all of the challenges facing the health care world these days, I decided to write my first blog of 2020 about some good news happening in Idaho. As of January 1st, over 50,000 Idahoans were enrolled in Medicaid expansion coverage finally bringing to fruition the ballot initiative passed handily by voters in November 2018.…
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How Medicaid Expansion Improved the Life of Idaho Mother Raising Two Children with Disabilities on Her Own
[Editor’s Note: Anita Sackuvich, a single mother with two disabled children who has been living without health insurance, joined Close the Gap Idaho at a press conference on January 6, 2020 to share her excitement about enrolling in coverage through Idaho’s Medicaid expansion. After facing mounting medical debt from a lifesaving surgery, Anita finally has health…
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South Carolina Becomes First State to Impose Harmful Work Requirements Primarily on Poor Parents
I had held out a little sliver of hope that the Trump Administration would not cross this line but today those hopes were extinguished when CMS Administrator Verma traveled to South Carolina to personally deliver the news to South Carolina Governor McMaster that his state would be the first in the nation to apply a…
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Leading Children’s Health and Medical Groups Respond to South Carolina Medicaid Waiver
Work requirements have been proven to be ineffective and would cause parents to lose coverage. The American Academy of Pediatrics, Children’s Defense Fund, First Focus on Children, Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, March of Dimes and the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners issue the following joint statement in response to the approval…
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Early Childhood Investments Less Effective if Young Children Remain Uninsured
Today, we are releasing a companion report to our annual 50-state look at uninsured children with a focus on young children under age 6. Unfortunately, the U-turn we’ve seen in health coverage for children of all ages also extends to the nation’s infants, toddlers, and preschool-aged children. After a decade-plus of downward progress, since 2016…
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MAGI Application Processing Time Report Shows Modest Improvement in 2019
States are required to routinely report to CMS a number of performance indicators but few have been published to date. The most current and frequent data that are available publicly include application volume by source, determinations by program, and both Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) point-in-time enrollment (which CCF tracks and reports on…
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Latest CMS Data Show Slight Improvement in Decline in Child Enrollment in Medicaid and CHIP
Based on the recent release of final August 2019 enrollment data by CMS, the decline in child enrollment in Medicaid and CHIP improved ever so slightly from a 3 percent decline in the 18-month trend from December 2017 to June 2019 to a 2.9 percent decline over the 20-month period through August 2019. At the…
