Blog
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How Would Changes to Federal Medicaid Expansion Funding Impact People in “Trigger” States and Those with Expansion Enshrined in State Constitutions?
Congress is currently considering draconian cuts to Medicaid that would mean millions of low-income Americans lose access to affordable health care. But both the type of federal cuts and how the joint state-federal Medicaid program operates in each state mean that the impact on people living in different states would vary considerably. The major difference…
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Medicaid Work Reporting Requirements – Even with Exemptions – Will Have Significant Consequences for People with Substance Use Disorders
As highlighted on Say Ahhh! earlier this month, Congress continues to consider imposing work reporting requirements on people who get their health coverage through Medicaid. As a practical matter, one thing is clear: the only purpose of this proposal is to terminate Medicaid coverage for the most vulnerable Americans. Work reporting requirements in public benefit…
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Cuts to ACA’s Medicaid Expansion Under Consideration by Congress would Lead to Large Coverage Losses Hitting some States Harder than Others
Next week, the House Energy and Commerce Committee is expected to consider fast-track budget reconciliation legislation that could cut Medicaid by as much as $880 billion over 10 years or more. This level of cuts to Medicaid is unprecedented and if enacted would mean tens of millions of children, parents, seniors, people with disabilities and…
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New State-by-State Estimates of the Federal Funding Cuts from Imposing a Per Capita Cap on the Medicaid Expansion
I previously warned about how imposing a per capita cap on the Medicaid expansion would effectively lead to a sharp cut to the current 90 percent matching rate for the 40 states and the District of Columbia that have adopted the expansion. This would shift significant costs to states, force them to drop their expansions…
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Governors and State Agencies Estimate Impact of Potential Federal Medicaid Cuts on State Budgets
With Congress returning to DC, we expect to learn more about the Medicaid cuts under serious consideration as part of the budget reconciliation process fairly soon. But, in the meantime, states are starting to crunch some numbers to gauge the impact of the potential Medicaid cuts on their state programs and state budgets. The analysts…
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The U.S. Already Has a Child Care Crisis: Medicaid Cuts Would Make it Much Worse
Working parents don’t need survey data to tell them our nation is facing a serious child care crisis. They are reminded every time they pay their child care bill that often exceeds even the high cost of rent. Expectant parents learn about it when they add their names to long waitlists even before their child…
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Medicaid Provides Stability During Turbulent Economic Times
Medicaid is the largest source of public health insurance coverage, covering nearly 80 million people, so it goes without saying that Medicaid is incredibly important all of the time. However, Medicaid is especially important during economic downturns. When families face tough times, Medicaid is there to provide the extra support they need to get by.…
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Black Maternal Health Week 2025: Healing Legacies: Strengthening Black Maternal Health Through Collective Action and Advocacy
The Black Mamas Matter Alliance (BMMA) founded Black Maternal Health Week, which is celebrated annually from April 11 to 17 during National Minority Health Month. Black Maternal Health Week amplifies the voices of Black mamas and brings awareness to Black-led maternal health and reproductive justice organizations that advocate for policy change and community-based solutions to…
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Medicaid Work Reporting Requirements Under Consideration by Congress Put People with Disabilities, Cancer, and Those Impacted by the Opioid Crisis at Risk
As Congress considers cutting Medicaid to finance President Trump’s legislative agenda, one of the proposals that appears to have a great deal of support from Republicans is the imposition of a punitive work reporting requirement as a condition of Medicaid eligibility. I have long held the view that this approach is deeply flawed for a…
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Voices from Ohio: The Harm of Medicaid Work Requirements
As Congress considers imposing a mandatory work reporting requirement (WRR) on adults in Medicaid as part of their drive to impose large federal cuts to Medicaid, Ohio is the first state during the second Trump Administration to request Section 1115 demonstration authority to impose a WRR on its ACA Medicaid expansion group. Ohioans are speaking…
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Medicaid Cuts Would Weaken Early Intervention for Infants and Toddlers with Disabilities and Developmental Delays
Yesterday the House reconfirmed its intent to make massive cuts to Medicaid after the Senate rubber stamped the plan last week. Despite repeated polls – including one from President Trump’s polling firm Fabrizio Ward – showing large majorities of American voters do not want to see Medicaid cut, Congress is moving full steam ahead to…
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Supporting Caregivers Means Supporting Medicaid
In Partnership with While many mistakenly believe Medicare is the primary source of health coverage for home or nursing care over a long period, the reality is that Medicaid serves as the backbone of our country’s long-term care system. Medicaid is the primary source of funding for long-term care in the U.S., paying well over…
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Medicaid, SNAP, and WIC Work Together to Help Families – Draconian Cuts Would Decrease Access to All
The National WIC Association, Urban Institute, and the Commonwealth Fund have all recently written about the economic impact of cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program. WIC is a supplemental nutrition program that is specifically for moms and babies. In January, the media released a leaked…
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Medicaid Work Reporting Requirements: More than Meets the Eye
Republicans from President Trump on down are trying to hide the ball on how much they want to cut federal Medicaid payments to states and how they would go about doing so. But as my colleague Edwin Park has explained, they are working from the same playbook as they used in 2017 during the first…
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Parents and Health Care Providers Value Medicaid
The groundswell of support for Medicaid that has recently come to the surface may have been surprising to those targeting the health coverage program for cuts but it is not surprising to those of us who conduct Medicaid research. Medicaid, together with the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) insures over 37 million children. Medicaid, the…
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Happy 15th Birthday, ACA
Fifteen years ago this month, President Obama signed into law the two bills that together make up the Affordable Care Act (ACA). It was, to borrow a phrase, a BFD. In a blog, on the occasion of a previous birthday, my colleague Joan Alker methodically laid out just how big a deal the ACA was…
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Medicaid and CHIP Rules on Chopping Block
As my colleague Edwin Park has written, the House Budget Committee “menu” of Medicaid cuts includes rescinding regulations promulgated by the Biden Administration. Of particular interest to readers of SayAhhh!, the menu includes rescinding the Medicaid and CHIP eligibility and enrollment rule and the two companion rules on improving access to care in fee-for-service and…
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New Data Highlights How Medicaid Supports Student Success in School Districts Across the Country
Research consistently shows that Medicaid coverage in childhood has long-term benefits for children, schools and society including supporting student success. A Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis found that childhood Medicaid coverage also has a positive effect on the U.S. economy with long-term fiscal effects including boosting gross domestic product (GDP). For a better understanding of…
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Medicaid Fraud: The Improper Use of Improper Payments
Welcome to another installment on the misuse of the Medicaid “improper payments” metric. This conversation began in 2018, then continued in 2020, 2022, and this year. For those just joining, Brian Blase of the Paragon Institute and his colleague, Rachel Greszler of the Economic Policy Innovation Center, have launched yet another misguided assault on federal…
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Imposing a Per Capita Cap on the Medicaid Expansion Would Lead to an Effective Cut in the Expansion Matching Rate for States
On March 5, according to Axios, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Brett Guthrie (R-KY) is now considering a proposal to impose a per capita cap on the Medicaid expansion as part of budget reconciliation. Chairman Guthrie, as well as other House Republican leaders, may believe that such a cap could be viewed as more…
