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Say Ahhh!

  • Pediatricians Explain How Immigration Policy Intersects with Public Health and Health and Well-Being of Children

    CCFadmin

    As pediatricians, we have the privilege of celebrating with families when a child is healthy, and supporting them through difficult and sometimes heartbreaking situations. We are especially moved to empathize with, and advocate for, families facing seemingly insurmountable challenges. Recently, our thoughts have been with our immigrant patients and families, in particular those who will…

  • Research Update: Early Evidence on Medicaid Expansion’s Important Role Fighting Cancer

    Karina Wagnerman

    This week, I am reading studies showing new evidence that the Medicaid expansion is contributing to the fight against cancer. Medical Care’s Changes in Health Insurance Coverage Associated With the Affordable Care Act Among Adults With and Without a Cancer History: Population-based National Estimates The researchers examined coverage changes for adults with and without a…

  • Georgetown University CCF Welcomes Edwin Park

    Joan Alker

    Many readers of SayAhhh! already know the amazing health policy work of Edwin Park from his time at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP). For those of you who don’t, you are in for a treat as Edwin joins our team here at Georgetown CCF as a Research Professor at the McCourt School…

  • New NHIS Data Show Uninsured Rate for Adults is Twice as High in States that Haven’t Expanded Medicaid

    Adam Searing

    Buried in a report this week by the Division of Health Interview Statistics of the National Center for Health Statistics (part of the federal US Department of Health and Human Services) is an interesting comparison of the uninsured rate between Medicaid expansion states and non-expansion states. In the first nine months of 2017, adults in…

  • New GAO Report on Medicaid Waiver Evaluations Identifies Many Shortcomings

    Joan Alker

    Earlier this week, the GAO released a new report that looks closely at Section 1115 Medicaid demonstration evaluations. The states examined are Arizona, Arkansas, California, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, and New York. The report was requested by Republican Members of Congress from the committees of jurisdiction. The report uncovered a number of problems including that…

  • States Work to Curb Drug Spending: Tight Budgets Lead to New Approaches to Managing Costs

    Alisa Chester

    Prescription drug spending in the United States continues to grow, totaling $477 billion in 2016. Spending by Medicaid, which is jointly funded by states and the federal government, surpassed $31 billion that year. These rising costs have strained state budgets, leading policymakers to look for strategies—within Medicaid and beyond—to better manage spending while ensuring a patient’s access to…

  • Show Me Your Budget, and I’ll Tell You What You Value (Hint: It’s Not Medicaid in Schools)

    CCFadmin

    President Trump’s FY19 budget once again seeks to end Medicaid as we know it. The budget embraces a per-capita cap funding proposal frequently referred to as “Graham-Cassidy” that would replace the existing federal-state financial partnership with capped Medicaid funding at a set amount per beneficiary—regardless of the costs to the state. Specifically, the President’s FY19…

  • Research Update: Can Parents in Non-Expansion States Meet a Work Requirement and Remain Medicaid-Eligible?

    Karina Wagnerman

    This week, I am reading a study examining Medicaid work requirements in non-expansion states. My colleague, Joan Alker, recently wrote about Mississippi’s waiver request, which is currently up for public comment and includes a work requirement targeted at very poor parents and caretaker relatives with household incomes below 27% FPL. A new study examines whether…

  • How Are “Healthy Behavior” Requirements Working in Iowa?

    CCFadmin

    Iowa is adding to the evidence that requiring specific “healthy behaviors” of Medicaid enrollees is an ineffective way to improve health outcomes. In 2013, Iowa got approval from CMS to expand Medicaid to adults up to 133 percent of poverty by way of an 1115 waiver. That waiver allowed the state to charge premiums to…

  • Mississippi Medicaid Waiver Could Lead to Coverage Losses for Very Poor Families

    Joan Alker

    I recently pulled out my calculator to look into the budget neutrality assumptions underlying Mississippi’s Section 1115 Medicaid waiver, and the results were disturbing. I unpacked this waiver in a previous blog. Kansas has a similar request pending[note]It is possible that Kansas may withdraw this request due to pending action by the state legislature.[/note] and…

  • Administration’s Budget Proposal Includes $1.4 Trillion in Medicaid Cuts

    Andy Schneider

    The Administration today released a budget proposal for the fiscal year that starts on October 1 (FY 2019).  On the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), the budget proposal is irrelevant.  The budget proposes to extend CHIP through 2019; as Kelly Whitener explains, the Bipartisan Budget Act signed into law last week extends CHIP through 2027. …

  • Bipartisan Budget Act Funds CHIP for Four More Years and Includes Other Important Health Care Provisions

    Kelly Whitener

    Congress passed another short-term continuing resolution (CR) early this morning after a brief government shutdown. The Bipartisan Budget Act funds the government through March 23, but this one is very different from the previous CRs. One metric of how it’s different is the length – this one comes in at over 650 pages whereas the…

  • Indiana’s Waiver Approval Adds More Barriers to Medicaid Coverage

    Joan Alker

    Following the recent approval of Kentucky’s waiver, Indiana becomes the second major waiver approval by the Trump Administration which establishes more barriers to Medicaid coverage. This is an unfortunate but not surprising turn of events. It’s worth noting that Indiana’s own evaluation shows numerous barriers to coverage already existing in Indiana’s HIP 2.0 program, yet…

  • Medicaid is Critical for Young Children and Their Parents – Time to Tackle Real Barriers to Work Like Affordable Child Care

    Elisabeth Wright Burak

    Last month, I blogged about a helpful new 50-state report by our friends at the Urban Institute that breaks down coverage for children 3 and under and their parents. This week they released an update to this report with 2016 data and even looked at metro area coverage for young children.   The upshot? Again,…

  • Idaho Goes Rogue: State Authorizes Sale of Health Plans that Violate the Affordable Care Act

    Sabrina Corlette

    As instructed by Governor Butch Otter’s recent executive order, the Idaho department of insurance (DOI) has published rules for new, “state-based” health plans that are exempt from many of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) protections for people with pre-existing conditions. The state’s goal appears to be to provide a cheaper alternative to Idahoans than ACA-compliant plans. They do…

  • Together, Medicaid and CHIP cover more than 4 in 10 young children in most metropolitan areas

    CCFadmin

    After states faced funding shortfalls because of Congress’s failure to reauthorize the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) by its original September 30, 2017, deadline, Congress last week finally agreed to fund an extension of the program for six years. This agreement was much needed for the children whose coverage hung in the balance at pivotal…

  • Research Update: The Links Between Medicaid and Schools in the Data and Research

    Karina Wagnerman

    We recently updated our state-by-state data on the share of children with Medicaid coverage by school district. Medicaid spent about $4 billion on school based health care services in 2015. There was wide variation by state: Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas each had at least $250,000,000 in Medicaid spending on school…

  • Tackling Health Barriers to Learning – Does Your State Mandate Student Health Screenings?

    Candace Webb

    The link between a student’s health status and learning has been well established in the literature. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Adolescent and School Health, “healthy students are better learners” and “schools are the right place for a healthy start.” Maximizing the school experience and success of every American…

  • Mothers Mentoring Mothers

    CCFadmin

    More than 4.8 million American children (6 percent) lack health insurance. Among uninsured US children, 62-72 percent are eligible for but not enrolled in Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). For uninsured, low-income children, 84 percent are eligible for but not enrolled in Medicaid/CHIP. Racial/ethnic disparities exist in insurance coverage for U.S. children: compared…