Blog
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Trump Budget Poses Even More Threats to Children’s Health
Today President Trump’s budget came out and the news for children’s health coverage is devastating. In addition to assuming the enormous cuts and dangerous changes to Medicaid included in the House passed American Health Care Act (that we have blogged about many times), the President is proposing even larger cuts to Medicaid and is proposing…
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Capping Medicaid: Bad News for All
As readers of SayAhhh! know, the House bill to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act does far more than effectively end the expansion of Medicaid for low-income adults. It also radically disrupts the 50-year old Medicaid partnership between the federal government and the states by capping federal payments to the states for covering all…
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Impact of Medicaid Per-Capita Cap Cuts Underestimated by Many
The American Health Care Act, passed by the House and now currently being considered by the Senate, significantly cuts Medicaid in two ways. First, the AHCA rolls back the expansion of Medicaid to adults with incomes below $16,643 (138% FPL). Second, the AHCA institutes a “per-capita cap” or limit on how much the federal government…
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Dialing for Dollars
Every few months Congress is looking around for money – money to pay for future expenditures, money to reduce the deficit, money to offset reductions in revenue from tax cuts. When Congress goes on such an expedition, they look around at many different parts of the budget – discretionary, non-discretionary, defense, non-defense – and try…
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Further Evidence that Medicaid and CHIP Have Played Significant Role in Nation’s Success in Covering Children
Efforts to connect kids to coverage over the past decade were accelerated by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and are paying off big! A new report by the Urban Institute shows that the number of uninsured children who were eligible but not enrolled in Medicaid fell by 40% in just two years between 2013 and…
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Wisconsin Waiver Would Create Unprecedented Barriers to Medicaid Access
Wisconsin officials are seeking unprecedented changes in the state’s Medicaid coverage for adults without dependent children. The draft proposals (summarized here) would significantly increase the number of uninsured Wisconsinites, make the state less healthy, and impede efforts to increase the Wisconsin workforce. From a national perspective, the section 1115 waiver that Wisconsin is seeking would…
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Medicaid Per Capita Cap Threatens Children with Disabilities
Proponents of the American Health Care Act (AHCA),which both effectively eliminates the ACA’s Medicaid expansion AND establishes a cap on federal spending cap for the entire Medicaid program, often say that they are preserving the Medicaid program for the “most vulnerable.” The AHCA would actually do the opposite for the most vulnerable children on Medicaid…
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Proposed Medicaid Changes Would Put Medical Decisions for Kids in Hands of States Instead of Parents and Pediatricians
In a recent interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Secretary Price spoke about the efforts underway to change our health care system. In fact, there’s much discussion in DC these days about health care – who should have it, how much it should cost, and which benefits should be included. While there’s room for improvement on…
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Proposed Changes to Medicaid Threaten Access to Health Care
In the 1990s, the Medicaid program was often discussed by policymakers as a secondary topic after dealing with issues surrounding Medicare and reforming managed care. There were several reasons for this. Medicaid was seen as a “welfare” program targeted at specific poor populations. The country still hadn’t yet experienced the deep recessions that would mean…
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Medicaid’s Special Importance for Children in Southern and Western States
We can’t say it enough here at Georgetown CCF – Medicaid is critical for delivering quality health care to children and their families. Our state, county and congressional district maps make clear just how important Medicaid is to children across the country, regardless of which elected officials represent them in Washington, D.C. Nationally, children make…
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The Passage of the AHCA: The Real Life Consequences for People with Disabilities
By Julie Ward, Director of Health Policy and Nicole Jorwic, Director of Rights Policy. This post originally appeared on The Arc Blog. They say that if you want to know about a person, look at how they spend their money; to know the values of a nation, the same is true. The current Affordable Care…
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Senator Cassidy Tells Jimmy Kimmel He Wants to Protect Kids’ Health but Misses Point on Need to Preserve Medicaid to Achieve Goal
One of the largest challenges in showing the potential impact of the latest House-passed proposal to repeal the ACA is elevating the fact that our nation’s success in covering children is at major risk. Medicaid, accompanied by the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and the Affordable Care Act (ACA), has been the primary reason our…
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Capping Federal Medicaid Payments to States: Four Questions to Consider
Late last week, the House of Representatives, with one vote to spare, passed a bill to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Among many other things, the bill would radically restructure the nation’s largest health insurer for children—Medicaid—by capping federal matching payments to states starting in three years and continuing each year after…
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Nation’s Progress on Children’s Health Coverage Imperiled
On November 9th I blogged about what the election results could mean for child and family coverage. As readers of Say Ahhh! know, the nation made extraordinary progress in reducing the rate of uninsured children to under 5%, This progress is thanks to Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and the Affordable Care Act (ACA). All three…
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Five Myths about the Medicaid Cap
The White House and the House Leadership are hoping to bring a bill to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to the House floor for a vote this week. The bill contains a new section allowing states to waive ACA consumer protections relating to health insurance. It also contains the same cap on…
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Medicaid: Welcoming Americans with Pre-existing Conditions since 1965
The White House and the Republican Leadership in the House are continuing to look for enough votes to pass a bill to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act (ACA). A number of Republican Members opposed to the bill have expressed specific concern about new amendment that would allow states to undo the ACA’s protections…
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The Affordability Equation: The Conversation about ACA Subsidies Must Consider Premiums and Cost Sharing at the Same Time
By Hilary Dockray, Social Interest Solutions As the debate about the Affordable Care Act (ACA) continues – Repeal? Replace? Repair? – it is important to remember that the ACA was designed to work as a whole and that disassembling pieces of it would be unwise. But the national conversation continues to deal separately with two…
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First Steps: A Spotlight on Health and Developmental Screenings for Young Texans
By Adriana Kohler and Rebecca Hornbach, Texans Care for Children Every family looks forward to their child’s first smile, first step, and first words. Routine well-child visits and developmental screenings allow doctors and families to monitor a child’s health and development and celebrate these kinds of milestones. Ongoing screenings for young children also help identify…
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Medicaid And CHIP Help Address Racial/Ethnic Disparities In Children’s Health
Medicaid and CHIP are primary sources of health coverage for all children. These programs play a particularly important role for children of color, who are disproportionately represented among beneficiaries because they are more likely to be economically disadvantaged (see figure below). CCF’s new fact sheet unpacks child population and Medicaid/CHIP data by state. We know…
