Blog
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New Maps Display Medicaid/CHIP Enrollment by Congressional District
We have a new interactive map feature on our website and are excited to share with you the first maps we have created with our new tool. The maps visually display how Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) are helping to meet the needs of children and families across the country. You can…
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New Efforts to Cut Medicaid and Repeal ACA Emerging in Congress
There are non-alternative reports that the White House and the Republican Congressional leadership are planning for a vote next week on legislation to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Details as to what that legislation actually says are not yet available, but it’s likely that it will contain a cap on federal Medicaid…
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Louisiana Medicaid Director Ruth Kennedy Retires After Successful Career Helping Children and Families
Medicaid Director Ruth Kennedy recently retired from the Louisiana Department of Health. She began her Medicaid career working in a field eligibility office about 40 years ago. Kennedy is well known for her tenacity and dedication to improving the lives of children and families in Louisiana. She successfully connected children with Medicaid and LaCHIP coverage…
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Medicaid & CHIP are Long-Term Investments in Children’s Health and Future Success
As readers of Say Ahhh! know, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) provide health coverage to more than one-third of the children in the United States and the vast majority of these children are covered through Medicaid. Our new report, Medicaid is a Smart Investment in Children, reviews the research on the long-term…
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Kids and State Budgets Need the Stability and Predictably of CHIP During an Uncertain Time
As we watch the latest stalled efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and gut Medicaid, we couldn’t help but think about what’s in store for another key health program: the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). With no new funding available to states after September 30, 2017 (the end of the federal fiscal year),…
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What Should Congress Do to Extend CHIP?
In February I wrote a blog entitled “Congress Must Act Quickly on CHIP” in which I expressed concern that Congress would not act quickly to extend funding for this vital and popular program. Now, almost two months later there has been no noticeable Congressional movement and virtually no discussion about the Children’s Health Insurance Program…
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Survey Offers More Proof that Dental Coverage Counts
This was initially posted on the Children’s Dental Health Project blog by Matt Jacob A new national survey of U.S. parents shows that children without dental insurance were twice as likely as insured kids to have had a recent toothache or other dental problem that affected their ability to eat, sleep or concentrate in school. The…
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AAP’s Bright Futures Takes Step Forward to Incorporate Social Determinants of Health
A child’s healthy development is influenced by access to health care but also by the social and physical environment in which the child lives. There is clear scientific evidence that children who live in safe, stable, and nurturing environments are more likely to thrive. And now pediatrician-developed preventive care guidelines for children have caught up…
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Efforts to Repeal ACA and Cap Federal Medicaid Funding Fail
Today the mad dash efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act and radically restructure Medicaid came to an abrupt halt when Speaker Paul Ryan and President Donald Trump were unable to garner enough votes to pass the American Health Care Act. This bill had taken a sharp detour from the normal path to the floor…
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What’s at Stake if Essential Health Benefits are Scrapped? Pediatric Benefits, Protection from Lifetime Limits
As House leaders scramble to get enough votes to send the American Health Care Act to the Senate, there is a lot of horse-trading going on. None of it to the benefit of kids enrolled in Medicaid or private insurance. The most recent Affordable Care Act provision on the chopping block is the Essential Health…
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What’s at Stake for Schools and Students in Health Care Debate?
As Congress considers how to reform the nation’s health care system, the decisions made on Capitol Hill could well have a profound impact on schools and their most vulnerable students. How? The most obvious answer is financial. By now we know that Congress is not content to simply repeal the health care plan then-President Barack…
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Missing Out On New Health Coverage: Four States Where The Debate Around The GOP’s Health Care Bill Is Hurting Efforts To Close The Medicaid Coverage Gap
While the ultimate outcome for the GOP health care bill is unclear here in Washington, the uncertainty created by the legislation is already having an adverse effect on attempts to expand coverage in four states. Idaho, Georgia, Tennessee, and Kansas all have had robust discussions over the past year about joining the other 32 states…
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Health Proposal Breaks Long-standing Bipartisan Commitment to Children’s Health
With virtually no time to unpack the provisions in the Manager’s Amendment that was released late Monday night and no CBO score expected until just before the vote, it appears that the House is on the verge of voting to repeal not just the Affordable Care Act, but also break the long-standing bipartisan promise of…
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Why the Medicaid Cap Can’t Be Fixed
Confusion reigns about the cap on federal Medicaid spending now hurtling toward the floor of the House. It’s hardly surprising that people don’t fully understand what the House bill would do to Medicaid. It is presented as “repeal and replace” of the ACA, but it goes far beyond ending the ACA Medicaid expansion for 11…
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Proposed Medicaid Spending Caps Rely on Data Points That Don’t Exist Yet
There were few details in the recent CBO score on the American Health Care Act (AHCA) as to how the $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid were calculated and where the pain will be felt. That’s because the folks at CBO, like the rest of us, are scratching their heads over where to access the…
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Eliminating Essential Health Benefits Will Shift Financial Risk Back to Consumers
Congress is debating the American Health Care Act, a plan to repeal and replace parts of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The Act does not make changes to the Essential Health Benefits (EHB), ten categories of coverage that all new plans in the individual and small group markets must include in their plans. But the…
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What About the Data Needed to Calculate the AHCA’s Complex Medicaid Spending Cap?
There were few details in the recent CBO score on the American Health Care Act (AHCA) as to how the $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid were calculated and where the pain will be felt. That’s because the folks at CBO, like the rest of us, are scratching their heads over where to access the…
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New CMS Administrator Verma Takes The Helm And Reaches Out To Governors On Medicaid
On Monday night, the Senate confirmed the nomination of Seema Verma to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) by a 55-43 vote. Verma, as Say Ahhh! readers know, comes to CMS from Indiana where she worked for then-Gov. Mike Pence as a consultant on the state’s Healthy Indiana program. As I expected,…
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Follow the Money: CBO Shows House “Repeal and Replace” Bill is Really “Cap and Cut” Medicaid
On March 13 the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) issued its estimate of the House bill to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act. The House bill does far more than simply “repeal and replace” the ACA Medicaid expansion for adults. It would end the federal government’s 50-year, open-ended commitment to all Medicaid populations — the elderly,…
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How the AHCA Yanks Welcome Mat Out From Under Children Eligible for Medicaid and CHIP
The Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) coverage provisions did not target children’s eligibility for Medicaid or CHIP. It was aimed at closing the coverage gap for adults – both adults without dependent children, who were generally ineligible for Medicaid, and parents, whose pre-ACA Medicaid eligibility was well below the poverty level in many states. Yet, we…
