Media Coverage

Rewire News By: Adam Searing In November 2018, a majority of voters in Utah passed a Medicaid expansion ballot initiative providing Medicaid coverage to low-income people. The state’s GOP-held legislature, unhappy with the ballot results, this month overturned the robust expansion. Voters in November also approved a minuscule (0.15 percent) sales tax to pay for…

Governing By: Mattie Quinn In the first several years after the Affordable Care Act (ACA) helped states make more low-income people eligible for Medicaid, it was only Democratic-led states that took the federal government up on its offer. Republicans have since warmed to the idea — but only on their own terms, and sometimes even…

Concord Monitor By: Caitlin Andrews A company facing scrutiny for its abrupt departure from managing Iowa’s Medicaid system is one of the three private organizations chosen by New Hampshire to manage the care of 180,000 Granite Staters. … Health care policy experts say the blame doesn’t just fall on AmeriHealth. Kelly Whitener, an associate professor…

Kaiser Health News By: Samantha Young California Gov. Gavin Newsom says he’s done waiting for the federal government to curtail the rising cost of prescription drugs. Newsom has his own plan to ease that financial burden — one he hopes other states can join or replicate. … In the absence of federal action, states have…

Modern Healthcare By: Harris Meyer The Utah Legislature on Monday passed a bill to replace the voter-approved Medicaid expansion with a skinny expansion, a move that may encourage other states to seek similar scaled-back expansions with full federal funding. The Republican-controlled Utah Senate approved legislation passed by the state House of Representatives Friday that replaces the voter-passed…

Kaiser Health News By: Phil Galewitz Utah this week became the 35th state to approve expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, but advocates for the poor worry its unusual financing could set a dangerous precedent and lead to millions of people losing coverage across the country. … Those restrictions would be a radical change for…

The Nation’s Health By: Kim Krisberg In January 2018, federal officials released guidance on instituting Medicaid work requirements — an unprecedented move for the low-income health program. A year later, work requirements are pending or approved in more than a dozen states, advocates are fighting the rules in court and thousands have lost health coverage.…

Medscape By: Kerry Dooley Young The Trump administration on Thursday unveiled a plan to allow discounts on prescription medicines to flow more directly to patients in the Medicare Part D pharmacy program, while disrupting the flow of rebates that drugmakers now pay to so-called middlemen. … The initial response to the HHS proposal pays too…

Anchorage Daily News By: Elizabeth Earl As of Jan. 29, Alaska had a backlog of 15,639 cases of new applicants or renewals on the books. About two-thirds of those, or 10,200 cases, were filed in 2018. The average wait time to be approved is currently 55 days, according to Clinton Bennett, the media relations manager…

The Tennessean By: Anita Wadhwani Requiring people to work in order to keep government health insurance will hit low-income Tennessee parents, caregivers and children especially hard and cost the state more money than it saves, a panel of experts said Tuesday. … Joan Alker, executive director of Georgetown Center for Children and Families, said the…

Los Angeles Times By: Noam Levey As it races to revamp Medicaid by allowing work requirements for the first time, the Trump administration is failing to enforce federal rules directing states to assess the impact of the change on low-income patients who rely on the half-century-old safety net program, a Times analysis shows. … “There…

The Tennessean January 31, 2019 By: Anita Wadhwani As Tennessee officials move forward with a plan to require able-bodied adults to work, volunteer or go to school in order to keep state-funded health insurance, a new study finds that 68,000 could lose that benefit entirely as a result. Georgetown University Health Policy Institute researchers based their…

Kaiser Health News February 1, 2019 By: Ashley Lopez As U.S. immigration enforcement becomes stricter under the Trump administration, more immigrant families are cutting ties with health care services and other critical government programs, according to child advocates who work with such families. … Joan Alker, author of the Georgetown report, said the Trump administration’s…

Think Progress January 28, 2019 By: Amanda Michelle Gomez The Utah state legislature returns to work on Monday and GOP lawmakers are already proposing multiple bills that hobble a successful ballot measure to expand health care to more low-income residents. Utah State Sen. Allen Christensen’s (R) bill would prevent the ballot initiative — “Proposition 3,”…

NPR January 24, 2019 By: Ashley Lopez … The report shows that after years of steady decline, the number (and percentage) of uninsured children in the U.S. increased in 2017, the first year of Trump’s presidency. Nationally, 5 percent of all kids are uninsured — and in Texas the rate rose to 10.7 percent, up from 9.8…

Center for Health Journalism January 24, 2019 By: Kellie Schmitt Prioritizing investments in early childhood is supported by brain development research, which shows a child’s earliest months and years — even before birth — are a key window of both opportunity and vulnerability, according to Elisabeth Wright Burak, a senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Center…

Public News Service January 31, 2019 As many as 68,000 Tennesseans would be affected by a proposal to require parents who now receive Medicaid to demonstrate that they’re working at least 20 hours a week, according to a new report.  The report from the Tennessee Justice Center and the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families is…

Modern Healthcare January 18, 2019 By: Harris Meyer Arizona on Friday became the eighth state to receive CMS approval for a waiver to establish a Medicaid work requirement. … Arizona has not projected how many people will be disenrolled due to the work requirement, and has not estimated how much the program will cost to…

Los Angeles Times January 23, 2019 By: Noam Levey The percentage of American adults without health insurance surged upward in 2018, reaching levels not recorded since before President Trump took office, according to a new national survey that revealed widespread coverage losses over the last two years. … Yet an increasing body of evidence indicates…