Say Ahhh!
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House Passes 2 Year CHIP Extension Included in ‘SGR’ Compromise Deal
Editor’s Note UPDATE: Yesterday, the House passed this SGR-CHIP package, H.R.2, by a tremendous bipartisan vote (392-37-4). Despite attempts by Senate leadership to get a vote to the floor before their recess, it looks like they will be taking the package up when they return April 13th. Stay tuned… We’ve all been watching developments on…
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NHIS Shows Stagnation in Children’s Uninsurance Rates Persists
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) released early estimates from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) on rates of health coverage in the first three quarters of 2014 (January through September). NHIS estimates provide preliminary evidence of how implementation of major provisions of the ACA – including Medicaid expansion and health insurance exchange marketplaces –…
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Report: Overlap Issuers Could Narrow Coverage Gaps, Mitigate Churn
By Margaret A. Murray, CEO and Jennifer Mcguigan Babcock, VP for Exchange Policy Association for Community Affiliated Plans Last month, our organization – the Association for Community Affiliated Plans (ACAP) – issued a study that found that about 4 in 10 organizations offering coverage through Qualified Health Plans (QHP) in Health Insurance Marketplaces operate a…
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ACA Turns Five: Reflecting on the Past and Looking Forward to the Future
By Sean Miskell Since the Affordable Care Act (ACA) became law five years ago today, health reform has unfolded in fits and starts amid political opposition and staggered implementation of its insurance market reforms and coverage expansions. But as a result of these occasionally frantic first years of implementation, children and families now have improved…
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New Report Finds ACA Had Little Impact on Employer Sponsored Health Plan Enrollment
The Affordable Care Act’s employer mandate on large businesses barely had an impact on enrollment in employer-sponsored health plan enrollment in the past year, according to a new survey released by Mercer, a human resources consulting firm. Between 2014 and 2105, employers reported very little change regarding the average number of full- and part-time workers…
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Reports: Job Creation Up, Hospital Costs & Uninsured Rates Down in Medicaid Expansion States
The US Department of Health and Human Services has two new short briefs out today assembling the most recent research and reports on the economic impact of Medicaid expansion across the country. The data on the huge drop in uncompensated care costs among hospitals is particularly startling. The reports also note recent overall economic impact…
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What’s at stake without a quick, clean renewal of CHIP funding? Our historic success covering kids.
A timely analysis from our friends at the Urban Institute this week quantifies the high stakes of the current deal making around CHIP. The outcome, along with the looming Supreme Court decision, will determine whether we move backwards on our success covering children or maintain the strong system of coverage that has successfully served low-income…
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Medicaid Block Grant Plan Resurfaces in Budget Proposals – Would Shift Costs to States
By Sean Miskell Though my creative side longs to contribute novel analysis and insight to the health policy world, too often reality makes doing so difficult. Such is the case this week, as both the House and Senate Budget Committee have submitted proposals that would restructure Medicaid as a block grant to states and repeal…
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Tennessee: Medicaid Expansion is a Debate Among Conservatives (Video)
Given the highly charged partisan nature of debate over the Affordable Care Act, sometimes it’s easy to forget that the debate in states over accepting the ACA’s funding for state Medicaid expansion efforts is largely a debate among Republicans. In Washington the ideological debate between the parties centers around repeal of the ACA. In the states however,…
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Florida Consumer Reporter Takes on Complicated Task of Explaining the Coverage Gap
Say Ahhh! is excited to welcome Florida Legal Services to the health policy blogosphere. The new blog will focus on issues surrounding the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid expansion, and Medicaid Managed Care in Florida. Contributors include staff members working on health law throughout the state of Florida. Please check out this fantastic new resource for those…
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Good News for Kids: Bipartisan Support for CHIP Emerging in Congress
Since CHIP’s inception it has been described as a bipartisan program with support from both Republicans and Democrats at both the state and federal levels. In a time of intense partisanship in health policy, whether this would hold true as Congress considered the extension of CHIP funding this year was an open question. As readers…
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States Can’t Always Be Relied On To Do The Right Thing For Kids
By Joan Alker and Sean Miskell, As Congress continues to mull over the future of the Children’s Health Insurance Program, we at CCF continue to mull over the policy implications for children of various proposals put forth. As regular readers of Say Ahhh! know, a recently released discussion draft by Senator Hatch, and Reps Upton…
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Confused About What Happens at Tax Time (Part Two)? People in Immigrant Families
Now that we are knee-deep in tax season, we have heard reports of confusion about new tax filing rules related to health coverage for people in immigrant families. Here are some of the common questions we’ve heard so far and our answers. Q: Are noncitizens subject to the tax penalty (or the individual shared responsibility…
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MACPAC to Congress: Extend CHIP Funding and Maintain Current Program Structure
On Tuesday, MACPAC released a comment letter to the Chairman and Ranking Members of the Senate Committee on Finance and House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce. In the letter, commissioners urge Congress to extend funding for CHIP quickly and cleanly for two more years and reiterate their support for the program. The MACPAC…
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Florida Senate Comes Out Swinging to Close the Coverage Gap
Last week the Florida legislature began its regular session – scheduled to end in the first week in May. As regular readers of Say Ahhh!! know, I have been expecting a more robust debate there this year due to the expiration of the Low Income Pool funding that Florida receives through its Section 1115 waiver…
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NBER Report: Childhood Medicaid Coverage Leads to Better Health Outcomes
A new study joins a growing body of literature that sheds light on the long-term benefits and cost savings of expanding access to public health insurance. In “Childhood Medicaid Coverage and Later Life Health Care Utilization,” a working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), the authors conclude that expanding Medicaid eligibility…
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Confused about What Happens at Tax Time? FAQs on Penalties, Exemptions, Reconciliation, and SEPs:
By Tricia Brooks, Sandy Ahn, Sabrina Corlette, and JoAnn Volk As part of our Robert Wood Johnson Foundation funded work in providing technical assistance to consumer assisters in five states, we are getting a lot of questions about issues related to tax time and health coverage. Here are some of the common questions and answers.…
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Expansions of Medicaid for Pregnant Women Foster Healthy Development into Adulthood
By Sophia Duong and Tricia Brooks In an earlier blog post, we discussed how cutting Medicaid eligibility for pregnant women is a short-sighted policy decision. There are a number of negative consequences that arise in the short-term for pregnant women and newborn babies. And now, we know that there could also be significant long-term consequences.…
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‘State Flexibility’ Proposals in Hatch-Upton-Pitts CHIP Discussion Draft Puts Kids Coverage at Very Serious Risk
The discussion draft on how to extend the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) recently released by Republican leaders includes a number of provisions that will put children at significant risk of losing their CHIP coverage and becoming uninsured if these proposals were to become law. I blogged about the discussion draft in some detail last…
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King v Burwell Could Undermine Coverage For Children: One More Reason Why We Need CHIP Funding Renewed Quickly
Most of the conversation about the King v Burwell case has focused on which states would be affected, what would happen to insurance markets, or how many people would become uninsured as a result. But there’s one thing almost no one is talking about: how the decision might affect children’s coverage and why it’s another…