Say Ahhh!
-
The President’s Immigration Announcement: What Do Health Policy Wonks Need to Know?
Last Thursday, President Obama announced immigration reforms that will provide up to five million people with relief from deportation and work authorization. While the reforms will do much to alleviate the constant fear of separation that many immigrant families face, most people included in the reforms will not be eligible for federal health coverage affordability…
-
OIG Report: States, Feds Must Do More to Ensure Kids on Medicaid Get Essential Screenings
By Sean Miskell The Medicaid program includes screening requirements intended to ensure that any developmental or medical issues children encounter are identified and addressed by health care providers. However, a new report from a federal watchdog finds that both the states and the federal government must do more to guarantee that children are receiving these…
-
Medicaid Expansion: Post Election Discussion in Some States Maturing from Political to Practical
Last week the New York Times editorialized on “The Fate of Medicaid Expansion” arguing that such efforts had “suffered a blow in the midterm elections” and that the odds for expansion “have grown longer.” The Times was echoing a general strain of conventional wisdom since the midterms following the reelection of governors who are expansion…
-
How Could Executive Action on Parents Reduce the Number of Uninsured Citizen Kids?
Here’s something that most news stories on President Obama’s Executive Order probably are not touching on — protecting several million parents from deportation is likely to reduce the number of uninsured kids – the vast majority of them citizens. As child health experts, we have pointed out for years that reducing the number of uninsured…
-
House Companion Bill Introduced to Extend Primary Care Rate Bump
By Sophia Duong Earlier this week, Representative Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) introduced the Ensuring Access to Primary Care for Women & Children Act (H.R. 5723), a bill aimed at continuing the Medicaid primary care increase for 2015 and 2016. The primary care bump is set to expire at the end of this year. H.R. 5723 also…
-
New Report on States’ Oversight of Health Plan Network Adequacy
At yesterday’s National Association of Insurance Commissioner’s (NAIC) national meeting, the consumer representatives to the NAIC released a report on state approaches to regulating and monitoring the adequacy of health plan provider networks. The report, made possible thanks to a generous grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, summarizes the results of a survey sent…
-
States Try Innovative Approaches to Identify and Treat Maternal Depression
By Sophia Duong Maternal depression imposes serious risks to a child’s development, as Dr. Olivia Golden from the Urban Institute noted in a previous blog post. Dr. Golden not only covers the effects on children’s cognitive, psychosocial, and behavioral development, she also cites that maternal depression is highly prevalent among low-income mothers. Without treatment, mothers…
-
Consumers Should Resist the Urge to Do Nothing and Renew Coverage through the Federal Marketplace
When enrollment reopens in the health insurance marketplaces in just a few days, the 7-8 million current enrollees will have an opportunity to make sure they get the right amount of financial assistance and are enrolled in a plan that best fits their needs for 2015. This new brief outlines the process for consumers in…
-
We Can Reach the Finish Line on Health Coverage for Hispanic Kids
Ensuring that every child in America has the protection of health care coverage is an attainable goal. Today, in partnership with National Council of La Raza, we released a 50-state analysis of health coverage for Hispanic children. Our analysis found that Washington, DC is just a step away from the finish line already with 99…
-
We Can Reach the Finishline on Health Coverage for Hispanic Kids
Ensuring that every child in America has the protection of health care coverage is an attainable goal. Today, in partnership with National Council of La Raza, we released a 50-state analysis of health coverage for Hispanic children. Our analysis found that Washington, DC is just a step away from the finish line already with 99…
-
The Family Glitch Persists, Affordability Measure Increases to 9.56% in OE2
Everyone agrees it’s not fair to families and is an unintended consequence of how the Affordable Care Act is being implemented. But somehow our country’s leaders just cannot reach a consensus on fixing the family glitch. Families caught up in the glitch cannot qualify for premium tax credits to reduce the cost of a marketplace…
-
Essential Health Benefits Across the States
By Joe Touschner Who remembers the essential health benefits? It was more than two years ago when JoAnn Volk filled us in on the plans states were choosing as their benchmarks to help set the minimum benefits in individual and small group market plans. More recently, Wakely Consulting offered a very helpful comparison of benefits…
-
What Does the Election Mean for the Future of Children’s Coverage?
As the dust settles on this year’s mid-terms and talking heads work to define its meaning, it naturally left many in the child health world wondering: What now for kids coverage, notably CHIP and Medicaid?? It’s hard to answer this, of course, without some distance from the noise and posturing about what the election means.…
-
Time to Pay More Attention to Kids
Every year around this time, CCF releases a 50-state report on uninsured children. Since we started publishing the report, we’ve always had good news to share about the progress being made for uninsured children. This year, the news wasn’t quite so rosy. The national uninsured rate for children seems to have hit a plateau. The…
-
Progress on Children’s Health Coverage is Slowing
The historic progress our nation has made in reducing the rate of uninsured children appears to be slowing down. While we’ve achieved the historically low child uninsured rate of 7.1 percent, our research shows that we’re starting to see some stagnation. Whether this is an aberration or an indication of a more significant trend remains…
-
What Do Elections Mean for Medicaid Prospects?
No one would say it was a good night for the prospects of Medicaid expansion. But I would argue the landscape didn’t really change all that much. One clear loss for the issue was Governor LePage’s victory in Maine –a state where he has repeatedly vetoed the expansion. And Arkansas results – especially in the…
-
How Will Election Results Impact Florida’s Medicaid Expansion Prospects?
As I write this on Election Day, Florida’s gubernatorial race between incumbent Governor Scott and former Governor Crist appears to be one of the closest in the country. And Florida keeps popping up on lists of states for which the outcome of the Governor’s race will make a big difference. Maybe, but I have my…
-
Analysis: 3 Million Would Gain Coverage if ALL States Expanded Medicaid
By Sean Miskell On the eve of a midterm election that has seen state policy makers reconsidering their opposition to Medicaid expansion, an analysis conducted by the New York Times finds that 3 million more would gain coverage if all states expanded Medicaid. This finding highlights the importance role that state policy makers can play…
-
Campaign Season: Why Some Leaders are Changing their Position on Medicaid Expansion
As the midterm elections draw near, carefully sifting through the mountains of third-party attack advertising, talking point driven rhetoric and overwhelming horse race polling brings out a nugget of information regarding Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. Surprisingly, in some states that have yet to accept the federal money to cover more uninsured people…