X

Say Ahhh!

  • Need Help Learning Eligibility Rules and Application Process for Families with Immigrants?

    Sonya Schwartz

    With less than two weeks left until the end of Open Enrollment two, assisters are racing to get everyone covered, including families with immigrants, often among the most difficult cases.  I recently had a chance to help train more than 800 consumer assisters about how to overcome barriers to eligibility and enrollment for health coverage programs…

  • Getting MAGI Right: An Assisters Worksheet for Determining Household Size in Medicaid and CHIP

    Tricia Brooks

    Last week, we released a primer on the basics of MAGI – how rules for counting household size and income to determine eligibility for Medicaid and CHIP have been aligned with Marketplace subsidies. The move to MAGI has brought about a number of changes, but to further complicate things, there are some differences that apply…

  • President’s Proposed Budget: Four More Years of CHIP

    Elisabeth Wright Burak

    It would be great this Groundhog’s Day if Pensetucky Pete’s shadow also allowed us to forecast additional years of CHIP. But today we did get an important signal from the Administration that CHIP must remain a strong player in the system of children’s coverage for the foreseeable future. President Obama’s proposed budget included four additional…

  • Getting MAGI Right: Exceptions for Who Counts in the Household for Medicaid and CHIP

    Tricia Brooks

    Last week, we released a primer on the basics of MAGI – how rules for counting household size and income to determine eligibility for Medicaid and CHIP have been aligned with Marketplace subsidies. The move to MAGI has brought about a number of changes in Medicaid and CHIP, but to further complicate things, there are…

  • Study: Charging Medicaid Patients Co-Pays for Unnecessary Use of ER Does Not Decrease ER Visits

    Adam Searing

    This was the interesting conclusion last week from a comprehensive study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Researchers compared emergency department use by Medicaid patients from 2001-2010 in eight states that impose copayments for nonurgent use of the emergency department with ten states having zero emergency department copayments. The study involved over 10,000…

  • Getting MAGI Right: Differences in Medicaid and CHIP Add Complexity

    Tricia Brooks

    Next to the fact that millions of people are gaining health insurance, one of my favorite aspects of the ACA is its transformation of Medicaid – moving Medicaid into a modern era by harnessing technology and tapping trusted sources of electronic data to determine eligibility in real time. Launching a new high-performing eligibility system is…

  • “Budget Neutral” Funding for State Share of Medicaid Expansion: Hospital Fees and Taxes?

    Adam Searing

    As new plans to expand Medicaid are proposed, one issue increasingly coming up is the idea of “cost neutrality” to state budgets when creating the framework for a state expansion. The Affordable Care Act provided 100% federal funding for state expansions through 2016 but after that date states must pay a small graduated share of…

  • Anticipated Cuts to Uncompensated Care Funds Increase Pressure on Florida to Expand Medicaid

    Joan Alker

    Today I had the pleasure of joining the League of Women Voters of Florida and Florida Legal Services on a conference call to discuss a topic of utmost importance – the decision facing Florida’s policy makers as to whether or not to expand Medicaid – especially in light of the scheduled expiration of Florida’s Low…

  • Indiana Becomes the 29th State (Including DC) to Expand Medicaid

    Joan Alker

    [Editor’s Note:  The terms and conditions and letter issued by federal CMS are available through these links: agreement, special terms and conditions and letter.] Today Governor Mike Pence received approval from federal CMS for a Section 1115 waiver to implement his Healthy Indiana Plan (HIP2.0) and extend coverage to as many as 350,000 Hoosiers –…

  • Indiana Agreement Wins the Award for Bureaucratic Complexity and Red Tape

    Joan Alker

    I am still waiting for paper but here is what I know about Indiana so far. The good news is that Indiana becomes the 29th state (including D.C.) to extend Medicaid coverage. The less than good news is that this is an enormously complicated program which will likely prevent some low-income adults from getting the…

  • Medicaid Primary Care Rate Bump Increases Access, study finds

    CCFadmin

    By Sophia Duong The Medicaid primary care bump now joins the likes of Emily Dickinson and Vincent Van Gogh – those that received credit only after their passing. After two years of raising Medicaid primary care rates up to Medicare levels, the rate bump expired on December 31, 2014. But weeks after its expiration, a…

  • CMS Clarifies Health Coverage Options for Low-Income Pregnant Women

    Cathy Hope

    It’s critical that expectant mothers have access to comprehensive, affordable coverage and continuity of care during this critical time of life. The Affordable Care Act expanded coverage options for pregnant women but the intersection of these changes to the law with other state and federal policies is a bit confusing to untangle. Recent federal guidance…

  • A Fond Farewell to CCF

    CCFadmin

    By Joe Touschner When I came to CCF in March of 2008, Senators Obama and Clinton were talking a lot about health reform on the campaign trail, but the Affordable Care Act was unwritten and still two years away from enactment. The median income eligibility threshold for children’s coverage across the states was 200% of…

  • Kaiser Family Foundation & CCF Release 50-State Survey on Medicaid and CHIP

    Tricia Brooks

    It’s that time again – the release of the annual 50-state survey on Medicaid and CHIP eligibility, enrollment, renewal and cost-sharing policies conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured and the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families. Today, my co-authors from Kaiser – Samantha Artiga, Jessica Stephens, and Alexandra…

  • The Importance of Medicaid Expansion to Improve Children’s Health Insurance Rates

    Alisa Chester

    By Alisa Chester and Sarah Koslov This week, two important studies confirmed our understanding that improving access to Medicaid and CHIP for children is a financially sound public investment that not only leads to greater health coverage rates but also results in increased college attendance, lower mortality rates, and higher earned wages. Together, the research…

  • What Can Policy Makers Learn from Experiences of Arizona Children Who Lost CHIP Coverage?

    Joan Alker

    Fourteen thousand children in Arizona lost their health insurance at the end of January 2014 when the state ended its KidsCare program for low-income children, becoming the only state in the country without an active Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Today we released two new reports on how those cuts to children’s coverage impacted Arizona…

  • CCF to MACPAC: CHIP Should Continue While Policymakers Work to Improve Marketplace Coverage for Kids

    CCFadmin

    By Sean Miskell As the expiration of funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) approaches and policy makers consider its role in the new health coverage landscape, it’s a good time to take stock of CHIP coverage and whether or not comparable and affordable coverage is available to families through the new health insurance…

  • Governor Haslam Announces Details of His Tennessee Medicaid Expansion Waiver

    Joan Alker

    Yesterday, Governor Haslam put some meat on the bones of the “Insure Tennessee” plan when he released more details about his version of Medicaid expansion. The Governor also called for a special session of the legislature to consider his plan to commence on Feb. 2nd. One highly publicized feature of the Tennessee plan is that…

  • Are People in Immigrant Families Gaining Coverage Under Health Reform?

    Sonya Schwartz

    I tried to answer this question for a presentation at an immigration conference right before the holidays. Unfortunately, although we are in our second open enrollment season under health reform, we can’t fully answer this question yet. What we do know indicates that we are making some progress but have a lot more work to…

  • Medicaid to 26: Reaching out to Former Foster Youth

    Guest

    By Kari Siddiqui, Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy One of the most popular provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) allowed young adults to stay on their parents’ health insurance until they turned 26. However, less talked about are the strides the ACA made for youth who were in foster care. Recognizing that young…