X

Say Ahhh!

  • “Rolling Back” the Medicaid Access Rule: Don’t Ask, Don’t Know

    Andy Schneider

    Last November, the CMS Administrator, Seema Verma, promised the National Association of Medicaid Directors she would “rollback” her agency’s regulations on access to care and managed care. It was clear she didn’t like the regulations—she called them “burdensome,” a concern she does not have when it comes to beneficiaries who will be overwhelmed by work…

  • New Study Shows Benefits of Identifying and Enrolling Uninsured Young Children into Public Health Insurance Through School-Based Outreach

    Candace Webb

    Despite gains in expanding health coverage to children over the past decade, we still have about 3.3. million uninsured children nationwide. And most of them, growing up in low-income and working-poor families, qualify for public insurance programs such as Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). So, what can we do about this? Schools…

  • VIDEO: Charlie and Rebecca Wood Share Their Story on Why Medicaid Matters So Much to Medically Fragile Children

    Adam Searing

    I met Charlie and Rebecca Wood of Virginia recently. We were able to help them create a short video to explain how important Medicaid is to Charlie and her family. I wrote about some amazing families like the Woods last summer and our colleague Marta Conner wrote about her daughter and the importance of Medicaid to her family as well. …

  • Kaiser Health Tracking Poll Finds 74% View Medicaid Favorably

    Karina Wagnerman

    The latest Kaiser health tracking poll found that roughly three-quarters of the public hold favorable views of Medicaid. The results do not vary drastically by political party. The poll also found that seven in ten Americans say they have ever had a connection to Medicaid, either through their own coverage, their child’s coverage, or indirectly…

  • Kaiser 50-State Survey on Medicaid/CHIP Eligibility, Enrollment, Renewal and Cost-Sharing Policies Released

    Tricia Brooks

    The Kaiser Family Foundation teamed up with Georgetown University Center for Children and Families researchers for the eighth year to conduct the annual 50-State Survey on Medicaid and CHIP. This 16th annual report reflects eligibility, enrollment, renewal, and cost-sharing policies in place as of January 2018. This year’s report takes stock of how the programs have…

  • Alabama Mothers and Children Will Bear the Brunt of Proposed Medicaid Restrictions

    Joan Alker

    As regular readers of SayAhhh! know, on January 11th CMS released guidance announcing its interest in approving state proposals to impose work requirements on Medicaid beneficiaries. Since then CMS has approved three waivers to do so (along with other important and harmful changes such as lockouts which we are not talking about today) – Kentucky,…

  • Ensuring Robust and Resilient Medicaid Programs in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands During Post-Hurricane Recovery and Over the Long Run

    Edwin Park

    On February 9th, Congress enacted the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, which included temporary financial assistance critically needed by the Medicaid programs of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands as the islands struggle to recover from the devastation of Hurricanes Maria and Irma.  But Congress should also consider permanent Medicaid financing changes to sustain…

  • How to Embed CCF’s Interactive State Maps

    CCFadmin

    One of the most handy resources we have here at CCF, apart from the important and insightful research and reports from my colleagues, is our interactive state maps. These maps provide an in-depth look into Medicaid and/or CHIP health coverage for our children and families — narrowing down percent of children and adults served in…

  • New Brief Explains CHIP Extension and Other Provisions Included in HEALTHY KIDS and ACCESS Acts

    Kelly Whitener

    The last few months have been full of twists and turns for CHIP. Child health stakeholders were disappointed to see the September 30, 2017 deadline come and go with no new CHIP funding, but then encouraged by Committee action in the House and Senate in early October. But the failure to get CHIP funding across…

  • Gutting Medicaid Transitional Medical Assistance: Watch What We Waive, Not What We Say

    Andy Schneider

    For over 30 years, Medicaid has encouraged work by parents, persons with disabilities, and others. You sure wouldn’t know it from the CMS Administrator’s repeated calls for “community engagement” by the “able bodied.”   But there it is, in plain view: section 1925 of the Social Security Act, Transitional Medical Assistance (TMA). TMA was designed to…

  • How Can Schools Leverage Medicaid to Meet Needs of Most Vulnerable Students?

    Phyllis Jordan

    When the federal government lifted its restrictions in 2014 on the services that schools could charge to Medicaid, education and health leaders saw an opportunity to provide better care for the most vulnerable students. Rather than opening the floodgates to new reimbursements, though, the lifting of the “free care rule” has left many states engaged…

  • New National Health Expenditure Projections Contain Several Key Findings Relevant to Medicaid 

    Edwin Park

    New National Health Expenditure (NHE) projections recently issued by the Office of the Actuary at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services included several key findings related to the Medicaid program: Aging of the population. In its new NHE projections, the CMS actuaries unsurprisingly find that the aging of the baby boom generation is “anticipated…

  • “This is not discussed”: Maternal Depression and Young Adult Mental Health

    CCFadmin

    “I know growing up like that this is not discussed if someone is like depressed or if they’re experiencing anxiety. Like no one knows what that is or how to like really address it or realize like this is going to be like ongoing process and a lot of times if like someone’s depressed they’re…

  • Medicaid Remains Popular Despite Efforts to Stigmatize the Program

    Andy Schneider

    Last week, the Kaiser Family Foundation released its February tracking poll. The results? Three quarters of respondents had a “very favorable” (40%) or “somewhat favorable” (34%) opinion of Medicaid. Over half of respondents (52%) said that the Medicaid program is working well for most low-income Americans covered by the program. On Monday, someone who has…

  • New Report Documents Impact of Immigration Debate on Children’s Health and Development

    Kelly Whitener

    The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) released a new report on the impact of ongoing immigration policy debates on young children. It’s an upsetting but important report to read, documenting the findings from interviews of more than 150 childhood educators and parents in six states (CA, GA, IL, NM, NC, and PA). This…

  • Research Update: Medicaid Pulls Americans Out of Poverty, Updated Edition

    Karina Wagnerman

    This week, I am reading studies about Medicaid’s poverty-fighting effects. In 2016, about 13% of the population lived in poverty. Children continue to live disproportionately in poverty: children represent 23% of the population, but 33% of the population living in poverty. Increasing access to Medicaid for families may be one way to reduce poverty. Research…

  • Medicaid Managed Care, Kids, and Quality: What Can Transparency Do?

    Andy Schneider

    Medicaid covers 37 million kids, and most of those get their care through managed care organizations (MCOs).  The large majority of state Medicaid agencies contract with MCOs to organize networks of providers to deliver the services that enrolled children need. How good a job are those MCOs doing? How do we know? And how can…

  • What do we know about developmental screenings in Medicaid and CHIP?

    Elisabeth Wright Burak

    Those of us in child health policy are familiar with the argument that coverage is important to children to ensure preventive care that can catch and address disease and delays early before they become larger hurdles. But once kids are covered, unpacking how and whether that preventive care is achieved, and defining the steps, policy…

  • Leading Children’s Health, Medical and Advocacy Organizations Object to Work Requirements and Other Barriers to Medicaid Coverage

    Cathy Hope

    A broad and diverse group of children’s health, medical and advocacy organizations are speaking up against adding work requirements and other barriers to Medicaid coverage. Forty-four organizations sent a letter to HHS Secretary Alex Azar today expressing serious concerns about the agency’s proposed changes to Medicaid’s Section 1115 waiver policy, which could lead to thousands…