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  • California Moves Toward Offering Full Price Coverage to Ineligible Immigrants in its Marketplace

    Sonya Schwartz

    Governor Brown recently signed into law SB 10, a bill that requires Covered California—the state’s health insurance marketplace—to request a waiver from the federal government to allow immigrants who are currently ineligible to purchase marketplace coverage. If the waiver is granted, immigrants who are not lawfully present would be allowed to purchase health coverage at…

  • Florida’s Medicaid Managed Care Program Has Considerable Room for Improvement

    Joan Alker

    I’m here in Sarasota, Florida today to release our new study looking at the quality of care for the approximately two million kids receiving health care services through Florida’s Medicaid managed care program. The study was commissioned by the Sarasota Herald-Tribune and supported by the Community Foundation of Sarasota County. We appreciate their wonderful partnership on…

  • Infant-Early Childhood Mental Health Matters

    Guest

    By Cindy Oser, ZERO TO THREE Last month, ZERO TO THREE and Manatt Health produced a policy brief and webinar highlighting the steps states should take to ensure resources to support infant and early childhood mental health (I-ECMH) are in place and working. Why? Because early investments in mental health will yield big outcomes for…

  • Medicaid Expansion is Having Positive Ripple Effects

    Adam Searing

    (Editor’s Note: You can hear the recording of our press call releasing the report here.) By Adam Searing and Jack Hoadley The 19 states that continue to decline federal funding to offer Medicaid coverage to more uninsured residents are missing out on more than just improvements to their uninsured and uncompensated care rates. In fact,…

  • How Did Arizona Reach a Bipartisan Agreement to Re-open KidsCare?

    Guest

    By Joe Fu, Children’s Action Alliance of Arizona After six years without KidsCare, Arizona will no longer be the only state in the country without a functioning Children’s Health Insurance (CHIP) program. With bipartisan support, Arizona’s Legislature pushed through a measure to reinstate KidsCare in the final moments of the session. On May 6, 2016, Arizona’s…

  • Six States Hold the Key to Reaching Nearly Half of the Uninsured Kids Who Are Eligible for Medicaid/CHIP

    Guest

    By Genevieve M. Kenney, Jennifer Haley, Clare Pan, Victoria Lynch, and Matthew Buettgens, Urban Institute, Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation We recently examined how children’s coverage fared during the first year of implementation of the major coverage provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). We found increases in participation in Medicaid and the Children’s…

  • New CCF Report: Improving Marketplace Coverage for Children

    Kelly Whitener

    By Sean Miskell and Kelly Whitener The Marketplaces created under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) have played an important role in expanding access to health insurance. Though relatively few children (approximately one million) receive their coverage through the Marketplace compared with Medicaid and CHIP, it is nonetheless an important option for children not eligible for…

  • CCF Releases First in Series of Briefs on the Future of Children’s Health Coverage

    Joan Alker

    Having concrete policy ideas may not be in vogue on the campaign trail, but here at CCF we are grateful to have the opportunity and challenge to think deeply about the future of health coverage for children and families. Today we are launching a new series of reports and briefs on the future of children’s…

  • New CMS Guidance Highlights Policy Options for Screening and Treating Maternal Depression

    Guest

    By Stephanie Schmit and Christina Walker, Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released an Informational Bulletin (IB) highlighting the critical role Medicaid can play in supporting state policy choices to promote young children’s healthy development through maternal depression screening and treatment. The guidance in the…

  • Understanding ACA’s Coverage Gains: Welcome Mat Effect & State Marketplaces Keys to Success

    Guest

    By Molly Frean and Benjamin D. Sommers, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health & Jonathan Gruber, Massachusetts Institute of Technology One of the primary goals of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was to reduce the number of individuals without health insurance in the United States. Prior to the passage of the legislation, this group…

  • Comprehensive Coverage for Children in California—Regardless of Immigration Status—Begins Today

    Sonya Schwartz

    Today is great day for kids in California. All children in California now—regardless of their immigration status—have access to free or low cost, comprehensive, health coverage if their family income is at or below 266 percent of the federal poverty level (about $53,625 for a family of three). According to the Berkeley Labor Center, up to…

  • Taking Stock of the Impact of Post-ACA Health Coverage in Ohio

    Guest

    Amy Rohling McGee, Health Policy Institute of Ohio The uninsured rate for working-age Ohioans has dropped by more than half since 2010, primarily because the state decided to expand Medicaid eligibility under the Affordable Care Act. Prior to Jan. 1, 2014, adults without dependent children were not eligible for Medicaid coverage in Ohio. Parents with incomes…

  • New Georgetown Report: Understanding the Consumer Enrollment Experience in the Affordable Care Act Marketplaces

    Sabrina Corlette

    Georgetown University’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms released a report this week, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, that provides new insights into the many challenges facing consumers and those tasked with assisting them when enrolling into coverage through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces. The findings can help policymakers better understand the kinds of systemic…

  • New Study Confirms that ACA Welcome Mat for Kids was Indeed Welcoming

    Joan Alker

    My favorite study from our wonderful colleagues at the Urban Institute has just been released, and it underscores that the sharp reduction in the uninsured rate for children was closely linked to the ACA. The study, like others before it (including our own) documents the decline in the number of uninsured children to historic lows…

  • ACA Non-Discrimination Rules: When Does Medical Management Cross the Line?

    JoAnn Volk

    One key feature of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that has transformed access to health insurance is the prohibition on discrimination based on health status for those buying coverage on their own or through a small employer. Prior to the ACA, states had varying degrees of protection for individuals with pre-existing conditions, but the patchwork…

  • Arizona No Longer an Outlier on Children’s Health Coverage

    Cathy Hope

    Today the Arizona legislature approved a measure to reinstate KidsCare and the Governor has indicated that he would sign it into law. An estimated 30,000 Arizona children will gain access to affordable coverage once the state reopens KidsCare (Arizona’s CHIP plan). This is a smart investment in the future of Arizona and its children. Studies…

  • Texas Put on Notice as Medicaid Waiver Extended by Federal CMS for 15 Months

    Joan Alker

    Earlier this week, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) sent a letter to the state of Texas extending the state’s Section 1115 Medicaid waiver for 15 months with level funding through the end of 2017. The state of Texas promptly labelled the agreement a “big win” for Texas – but was it? Texas…

  • Recent Changes to the Free Care Rule Put Federal Funds Back on the Table

    CCFadmin

    The so-called “Free Care Rule” prevented states from receiving federal Medicaid funds to provide any service that is ordinarily provided for free to the community at large, even if Medicaid would cover these services for its beneficiaries. For instance, if a public school nurse were to examine a student, federal funds could not be used…

  • HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY: Health Milestones that All Parents and Our Nation Should Celebrate

    Guest

    By Liane Wong, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation Just over a week ago, data released from the Urban Institute gave all parents a milestone to celebrate. Since 1997, the share of uninsured children declined by 75% and for the first time in history, 95 percent of the nation’s children have health insurance. For our…

  • The ACA is Helping Moms this Mother’s Day

    Alisa Chester

    In the U.S., 15.7% of mothers are uninsured. That’s 5.9 million mothers or one out of every six , according to new study from the Urban Institute. We care about all parents but with Mother’s Day right around the corner, we are focusing on moms for now. In How Are Moms Faring under the Affordable…