Blog
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What’s New for 2021 Marketplace Enrollment?
By Megan Houston, Georgetown University Center on Health Insurance Reforms On November 1, the eighth open enrollment period begins for marketplace coverage under the Affordable Care Act. This year there are several policy changes that could have an impact on enrollment and affordability of plans on the marketplace including: COVID-19 Pandemic: The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic…
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New Urban Institute Estimates of 1.7 Million More Uninsured Children if Supreme Court Overturns Affordable Care Act
On Tuesday, November 10, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments for California v. Texas, a case in which a group of conservative attorneys general led by the Texas Attorney General and the Trump Administration are seeking to overturn the entire Affordable Care Act (ACA). Researchers from the Urban Institute recently projected that the number…
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More Young Children Uninsured Since Trump Administration Took Office, Virginia a Bright Spot
As we lament the swift reversal in health coverage for children of all ages, we also wanted to take an initial look at how this trend specifically impacts young children. Sadly, children under age 6 were not spared from coverage losses. As these tables detail, there are nearly 180,000 more uninsured young children than at…
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Child Health Care Transformation: Addressing the Triple Crisis of COVID-19, Racial Injustice and the Economic Downturn
By Charles Bruner, Kay Johnson, Maxine Hayes, David Willis, Paul Dworkin, and Wendy Ellis The interrelated triple crises driven by COVID-19, racial injustice, and the economic downturn have disrupted virtually all aspects of life for children and families – with profound impact on children’s overall health and development. COVID-19 has challenged the nation’s child health…
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Children Are Losing Health Insurance
Since the American Community Survey became available in 2008, we have been using this data to track state and national trends in children’s health coverage. This year is the tenth time I have co-authored this report and the news is the worst yet – by a long shot. As regular readers of SayAhhh! Health Policy…
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ACA Improved Health Care Access and Affordability for New Mothers, Report Finds
We often get asked whether increases in health coverage rates result in more people getting care. In the case of new mothers following the implementation of the ACA’s major coverage provisions in 2014, a recent report from the Urban Institute shows the answer for this group is yes. In the years following the 2014 coverage…
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Another Sign that We Can Do Better in Covering Children Who are Eligible but Not Enrolled in Medicaid
A new report from the Urban Institute finds that participation of uninsured children in Medicaid and CHIP stalled in 2018. While this analysis lags behind the latest data (2019) on health insurance status released by the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey last month, it continues to show the direct correlation between the child insurance rate…
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What’s the Right Path Forward Toward Ensuring All Children Have Health Coverage?
Later this week we will be releasing our annual report on the state of children’s coverage looking at state trends. It’s no secret that the news will not be good – as I blogged about when the Census Bureau released the data a few weeks back, the number of uninsured children had its largest annual…
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Secretary Azar Extends Public Health Emergency Medicaid Protections for Beneficiaries and States
[Editor’s Note: For more up-to-date developments on the status of the public health emergency read CCF’s latest blog post on this topic.] On Friday HHS Secretary Azar renewed his declaration of a public health emergency (PHE) due to the coronavirus pandemic. The renewal is effective October 23, when the previous 90-day renewal would have expired,…
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New Resources Underscore Importance of Adult Health Coverage to Young Children’s Well-Being
The news on the health and economic crises remains harrowing. The political debates about the best ways to address both can be numbing. Racism was already a public health crisis in the minds of many—the pandemic has only exposed and exacerbated what was not fully seen or acknowledged before. But it’s the poorest families, many…
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House Passes Bill to Give States Option to Extend Postpartum Medicaid Coverage to New Moms
Medicaid and CHIP cover nearly half of all births each year and have critical roles to play to ensure access to postpartum care that supports the lifelong health of mother and baby together. The Helping MOMS Act, passed with a bipartisan majority voice vote in the U.S. House of Representatives this week, would give states…
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State Leaders Advance Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Policy, Part 2
Four years after launching ZERO TO THREE’s Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Financing Policy Project (IECMH-FPP), we have learned a lot about opportunities to advance infant and early childhood mental health policies, even amidst a tough political climate and funding limitations. In an effort to highlight the remarkable accomplishments of IECMH-FPP states, we recently…
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CMS Releases New Data on Decline in Pediatric Visits and Vaccination Rates with No Plan to Improve Care for Kids
CMS recently released a report on service use among children with Medicaid and CHIP during COVID-19. Perhaps the most newsworthy aspect of the report is that the data therein come from the much beleaguered Transformed Medicaid Statistical Information System (T-MSIS) that my colleague, Tricia Brooks, has been following since CMS announced it in 2013. The…
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HHS “Good Guidance” Rule: Not so Good for Medicaid and CHIP
The Centers for Medicaid and CHIP Services (CMCS) recently issued a letter to State Medicaid Directors laying out ways in which state Medicaid agencies can advance value-based care. The 33-page SMD includes numerous references to requirements that states must meet if they want to implement VBP approaches, such as “states must have claims systems that…
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More Evidence Medicaid Work Requirements Don’t Actually Work
A new study from Ben Sommers and other researchers at Harvard University finds that Medicaid work requirements fail to promote employment but do result in more people losing their health coverage and may promote other negative health outcomes. The study, published in Health Affairs, found that negative economic consequences ensued as well – with medical…
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Census Data Show Largest Annual Increase in Number of Uninsured Children in More Than a Decade
Despite the strength of the pre-pandemic economy in 2019, the number of uninsured children grew at an alarming rate according to newly released data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS). The ACS data released today documents the largest annual increase in the number of uninsured kids from 2018 to 2019 since the survey…
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Medicaid Expansion Helped Close Coverage Gaps for Pregnant Women, New Study Finds
Medicaid expansion helped close coverage gaps for low-income women in the months before, during and after pregnancy, reducing the number of women who were uninsured during this critical time, new research published this month in Health Affairs found. The authors define “low-income” as a woman whose income is below 138% FPL, the eligibility limit for…
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New 50-State Scorecard Exposes Missed Opportunities to Address Health Equity
Today The Commonwealth Fund released its annual scorecard on state health system performance. The report pulls together 49 indicators of health coverage, spending, quality and outcomes data to rank state health system performance. The accompanying state profiles provide additional context on the rankings, allowing states to get a comprehensive look at each state’s health care…
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New Report Underscores Urgent Need for Better Prenatal Health Care in Rural Areas
Earlier this summer, we called attention to the challenges that women in rural communities face during pregnancy and the postpartum period, and new research from Child Trends shows those challenges and health disparities extend to their young children as well. “Health Care Access for Infants and Toddlers in Rural Areas” found that rural infant and…
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Allowing Pharmacists to Give Childhood Immunizations Undermines the Continuity of Care Provided by Pediatricians
This week, HHS announced that it will allow pharmacists to vaccinate children ages 3-18, superseding state laws to the contrary. On the surface, expanding access to childhood vaccinations may seem like a good move but not so fast. While the evidence is clear that childhood immunization rates have declined since the COVID pandemic hit, allowing…
