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Say Ahhh!

  • Coverage Gap Leaves Millions of Americans without Affordable Health Insurance

    Allexa Gardner

    According to a new report by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 2.2 million adults  are in a “coverage gap,” resulting from the failure of 17 states to expand Medicaid. As Say Ahhh! readers may recall, the coverage gap occurs among poor, non-elderly adults in non-expansion states who have incomes too high to be eligible for Medicaid…

  • CCF Comments to Trump Administration Drug Pricing Blueprint: How to Further Strengthen the Effective Medicaid Drug Rebate Program

    Edwin Park

    In May, the Trump Administration unveiled its drug pricing blueprint and is now seeking public comments.  We would like to share our submitted comments to the blueprint, which focus on Medicaid, and encourage you to submit your own comments by the July 16 deadline. Prescription drugs are essential for the health of tens of millions…

  • Arbitrary and Capricious: Kentucky Can’t Require Medicaid Beneficiaries to Document Work in Order to Have Coverage

    Andy Schneider

    Seema Verma, the CMS Administrator, has been relentless in her efforts to rewrite the Medicaid statute by encouraging states to require “able bodied” adults to document work in order to qualify for Medicaid. The resulting blizzard of red tape would predictably lead to large coverage losses and redefine Medicaid as a welfare rather than a…

  • Capable, Not Willing: Reuniting Families Could Take Longer If Administration Doesn’t Make it a Priority

    Kelly Whitener

    As readers of SayAhhh! already know, the President’s Executive Order (EO) on family separation at the U.S. border raised more questions than it answered and had many disturbing implications. The EO did not end family separation as it purported. Instead, the EO outlined a policy to detain families indefinitely while seeking the authority to end…

  • Why is NH Proposing to Replace Proven Electronic Citizenship Verification with Burdensome Medicaid Paperwork Requirements?

    Tricia Brooks

    My home state of New Hampshire is proposing to add burdensome paperwork requirements for U.S. citizens to prove eligibility for Medicaid. That’s one of the requests they are making in the Medicaid waiver proposal that is up for state comment before the end of the week. This is perplexing because the state and federal governments…

  • New Report Shows Public Coverage Increases Insurance Rates Among Vulnerable Children

    Allexa Gardner

    In a recently released report on children’s coverage trends from State Health Access Data Assistance Center (SHADAC), analysis shows the number of uninsured children decreased by 2.2 million, or 2.9 percentage points, between 2013 and 2016. Though private and public coverage both increased over the period, children with public coverage experienced larger coverage increases, with…

  • What’s in the Association Health Plan Final Rule? Implications for States

    Sabrina Corlette

    On June 19, 2018, the U.S. Department of Labor released a final regulation to implement President Trump’s executive order calling for the expansion of association health plans (AHPs). The new rule raises numerous issues affecting state regulation, insurance markets, and the consumers and individuals who buy private insurance coverage. In her latest entry to the State Health & Value Strategies program’s…

  • The War on Medicaid: Still Going After All These Years

    Andy Schneider

    Last week was War on Medicaid Week.  The House Budget Committee majority, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, and a group of conservative think tanks all called for restricting the program through block grants and/or per capita caps coupled with deep cuts in federal funding.  In addition, the Office…

  • Highly Misleading Claim on Medicaid and Drug Pricing Does Not Withstand Scrutiny

    Edwin Park

    A recent report from the HHS Office of Inspector General found that Medicare Part D spending on brand-name drugs, net of rebates, increased by 62 percent between 2011 and 2015.  For nearly half of all brand-name drugs reimbursed by Part D, unit costs increased by at least 50 percent and for 12 percent of such…

  • What Does Trump’s Executive Order Mean for Children at the Border?

    Kelly Whitener

    When news broke this week that President Trump was going to stop separating families at the border, we felt cautious optimism. As we waited for the details, I wondered what the Administration’s new policy would say about addressing family immigration and how it would ensure families already separated would be reunited. I hoped the President’s…

  • Detention or Separation: Administration Sets False Choice for Families

    Kelly Whitener

    The legal parameters around immigration and detention have been hotly debated in the past few weeks. I turned to the experts in immigration law for the answer, and here’s what I learned. The Administration has falsely asserted that the law requires them to separate children from their families, but there is no such requirement. As…

  • Medicaid Expansion Brings Improvements in Coverage and Utilization to Rural CHC Patients

    Karina Wagnerman

    We previously blogged on research showing that the Medicaid expansion helps keep rural hospitals open and that the Medicaid expansion disproportionately benefited rural communities. We came to a similar conclusion in our own research when we analyzed Medicaid coverage in small towns and rural America. We found that the rate of uninsured adults in expansion…

  • New Conservative ACA Repeal Plan Would Likely Make Millions Uninsured

    Edwin Park

    On June 19, a coalition of conservative think tanks unveiled a very brief outline of their plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA).  Like similar 2017 repeal proposals from Senators Cassidy and Graham, the Health Care Choices Proposal would convert funding for the Medicaid expansion and marketplace subsidies into block grants for states.  The…

  • New Data Show Progress Covering Uninsured Children Stalled

    Karina Wagnerman

    I previously wrote about the growing gap between the rate of uninsured adults living in non-expansion states and expansion states. Next, I am analyzing the rate of uninsured children using the same data source, the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). We are anxiously waiting for the release of the American Community Survey in the fall…

  • Preliminary CBO Analysis Finds Medicaid Doing Far Better than Medicare in Addressing Rising Cost of Specialty Drugs

    Edwin Park

    Last week, I wrote about how data from the recent Medicare Trustees report show the highly effective Medicaid drug rebate program continues to produce substantially larger rebates from drug manufacturers than private insurers in Medicare Part D do.  Now, new preliminary data from an analysis conducted by the Congressional Budget Office similarly finds that Medicaid…

  • MACPAC Report Recommends Sound Improvements to Medicaid Drug Rebate Program

    Edwin Park

    On June 15, the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC) issued its June 2018 Report to Congress on Medicaid and CHIP.  The MACPAC report included recommendations for two sound, albeit modest, improvements to the highly effective Medicaid drug rebate program which could lower state and federal Medicaid prescription drug costs: Prevent manufacturers of…

  • Doctors, Patients and Many Others Voice Strong Objections to Florida’s Plan to End Retroactive Medicaid Coverage

    Joan Alker

    Florida recently submitted a Section 1115 Medicaid waiver request to eliminate 90-day retroactive coverage for everyone in Florida’s Medicaid program, except children and pregnant women. As we wrote in our joint comments, this is a bad idea that will expose families to medical debt and providers to higher uncompensated care costs. There is absolutely no…

  • Plan on Opioid Crisis is Missing a Proven Strategy that Could Double Number of Those Getting Treatment

    Adam Searing

    A June 11 press release headlined: “CMS leverages Medicaid Program to combat the Opioid crisis,” touts the Trump Administration’s commitment to addressing the growing problem of opioid addiction.  In the press release, Secretary Azar is quoted as saying: “Today’s announcement reflects the Trump Administration and HHS’s commitment to helping states use Medicaid to support treatment for…

  • Medicaid Plays a Critical Role in Caring for Infants Exposed to Opioids or Other Drugs In Utero

    Tricia Brooks

    The opioid crisis in American affects more than individuals suffering from the disease of addiction or substance use disorder. The crisis is hard on their families as demonstrated by the rise in the number of children suffering from neglect and abuse leading to their placement in foster care as a result of opioid and other…