Say Ahhh!
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Improving Health Equity Through Early Childhood Primary Health Care and Medicaid
It is in the first 1000 days of life that health practitioners actually can have the greatest impact upon a person’s healthy growth and development. The P.A.R.E.N.T.S. Science (Protective factors, Adverse childhood experiences, Resiliency, Epigenetics, Neurobiology, Toxic stress, and Social determinants of health) points to the critical importance of setting a positive health trajectory during…
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New Marketplace Research: Off-Marketplace Consumers and How Marketplace Enrollees Fare in Expansion and Nonexpansion States
Two new reports released this month on the Marketplace sparked our interest at CCF. The first, a brief from the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, examined the population currently purchasing off-marketplace coverage. The authors estimate that about 6.9 million individuals purchase health insurance in the off-Marketplace individual market. About 2.5 million…
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Creating More Direct Pathways to Health Coverage in Colorado
By Stephanie Brooks, Colorado Covering Kids and Families Colorado Covering Kids and Families’ (CKF) new report, Colorado’s Health Insurance Affordability Programs: Goals to Prioritize and Options to Consider to Create a More Direct Pathway to Health Coverage, is the first in Colorado to document and examine the eligibility and enrollment process in health coverage programs…
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Report Suggests Improved Outreach and Enrollment Efforts Directed at Very Poor Parents Needed
As I was flying back from Atlanta the other night, I read a fascinating new paper by researchers at the Urban Institute (a team led by the esteemed Genevieve Kenney), which looks at adult uninsured rates and participation rates in Medicaid. In particular, the researchers examine how the number of uninsured parents and childless adults…
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The Affordable Care Act: Efforts to Address Barriers to Health Equity
By Julia Embry, 2018 M.P.P. Candidate, Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy, originally posted on CHIRblog On October 3, the Georgetown University School of Nursing and Health Studies hosted a talk, “Achieving Health Equity: Tools for a National Campaign Against Racism” as a part of their Health Equity Think Tank. Health equity is generally…
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Racial and Ethnic Disparities Persist in Mental Health Care for Children
A recent study in the International Journal of Health Services found that there are racial and ethnic disparities in accessing mental health care for children and young adults. The authors used nationally representative data from the 2006-2012 Medical Expenditure Panel Surveys to examine children and young adults receipt of mental health care. While African American…
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Weighing in on the Kentucky Medicaid Waiver Request
Last week, we submitted comments in partnership with twelve other national organizations on Kentucky’s proposed section 1115 Medicaid demonstration waiver, which would make significant changes to Kentucky’s currently successful Medicaid expansion program. Our comments on the proposed waiver, known as Kentucky HEALTH, centered on concerns in areas of the demonstration project that would add red-tape…
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Another Success for Affordable Care Act: Sharp Drop in Uncompensated Care
Reduction in Charity Care Creates Opportunity for Investments in Community Health By Jon Peacock, Wisconsin Council on Children and Families New data from the Wisconsin Hospital Association show that the federal health care reform law has had the desired effect of causing a sharp drop in uncompensated care. That’s great news because much of the…
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Boosting Developmental Screening Efforts in Pennsylvania
By Joan Benso, President and CEO, Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children A child’s first years of life are marked by tremendous physical, cognitive, social and emotional growth. Detecting possible delays in development during these early years is a critical part of ensuring every child gets to the best possible start and is well prepared to learn…
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New Reports Shed Light on Medicaid and Child Mental Health
We at CCF are doing more to uncover whether children are getting the services they need in Medicaid and CHIP to ensure school readiness and put them on the path to thrive in adulthood. Many Say Ahhh! readers know that it can be tricky to fully understand the exact services covered by Medicaid in each…
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Arizona and CMS Reach Agreement on Medicaid Waiver
Today the federal government and the state of Arizona reached agreement on a five-year extension of the state’s Section 1115 Medicaid waiver. The terms and conditions of the agreement touch on a range of areas including the state’s managed care delivery system, some issues affecting long term care services, a number of financing issues and…
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The Covering All Kids Act is Smart Investment in Future of Illinois Kids & State
By Andrea Kovach, The Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law When the Governor of Illinois signed HB5736 into law this summer, it was a good day for children and a smart investment in the future of our state as 41,000 children got to keep their affordable health insurance for three more years. The Covering…
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Medicaid Managed Care Rules Will Improve Transparency, Accountability
Thanks to a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, CCF has teamed up with NHeLP to launch a series of explainer briefs that unpack the Medicaid/Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) managed care regulations. The importance of these rules cannot be understated. Nearly nine out of ten children in Medicaid and CHIP receive care through…
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Pediatricians Lead Charge to Build a Healthier Future for America’s Children
Hats off to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) for its efforts to create a healthier, happier, safer future for America’s children. At a panel discussion this week moderated by Dr. Richard Besser of ABC News, AAP leaders unveiled the “Blueprint for Children: How the Next President Can Build a Foundation for a Healthy Future.”…
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CLASP ED Olivia Golden Invites Children’s Advocates to Help Combat Maternal Depression
Olivia Golden, the Executive Director of the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), joined this month’s CCF state partner call to share her extensive knowledge about maternal depression. She gave an impassioned call to action for children’s advocates to work on policies to address maternal depression and made the following key points. Maternal depression…
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Hand-Wringing Over the Affordable Care Act Forgets How Very Far We Have Come
By Sabrina Corlette, Georgetown University Center on Health Insurance Reforms I call it the “law with nine lives.” The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has faced multiple constitutional challenges, an uncountable number of repeal attempts and a botched roll out. Each time, pundits have predicted that the law would fail. This latest round of news about…
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New Data Shows States Not Expanding Medicaid Falling Further Behind
By Matt Broaddus, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities States that have adopted health reform’s Medicaid expansion had a much lower uninsured rate in 2015 than states that haven’t, new Census Bureau data show. Moreover, the gap keeps widening. Some 7.2 percent of the people in the 28 states (including the District of Columbia) that…
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Utah Medicaid Waiver Comments Submitted
Today, we and our colleagues at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, along with six other national organizations, submitted comments on the Utah Primary Care Network Section 1115 waiver request to extend the Primary Care Network and expand coverage to two very limited new groups of beneficiaries – parents from current mandatory levels up…
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CCF’s New Mobile-Friendly Website Offers State Health Policy Center + More
Welcome to CCF’s new website. You may have noticed a few obvious changes such as the mobile-friendly design and more visuals but there’s a lot more than meets the eye. When we conducted user testing on our web site a while back, one of the top items our partners asked for was a more in…
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Rhode Island: Working to Improve Access to Oral Health Care for Children through RIte Smiles and TeethFirst!
By Katherine Chu and Jim Beasley, Rhode Island KIDS COUNT Oral health is a critical but overlooked component of overall health and well-being among children and adults. Poor oral health has immediate and significant negative impacts on children’s general health, school attendance and academic achievement. Untreated dental disease can lead to eating, sleeping, speaking and learning…
