Media Coverage

WNPR By: Jeff Cohen The rate of people without health insurance in rural Connecticut has gone down dramatically since the passage of the Affordable Care Act. That’s the takeaway message from a new report on health insurance out of Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families. Edwin Park, a research professor at the center, said…

Modern Healthcare By: Harris Meyer … Polls show the public supports Medicaid expansion, including in red states. A July tracking poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that in the 14 states that have not expanded Medicaid, 51% of those polled said they favor expansion, with 39% opposing it. A recent UtahPolicy.com poll found 65%…

Kaiser Health News By: Shefali Luthra The Trump administration wants to redefine a status known as “public charge” — a category used to determine whether someone seeking permanent resident status is “likely to become primarily dependent on the government for subsistence.” … The new rule would expand the list to include some health insurance, food…

Fierce Healthcare By: Rose Meltzer Rural states may have the most to gain from expanding Medicaid, according to a new study from the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families and North Carolina Rural Health Research Program. The uninsured rate is higher in rural areas than metro areas across the board, in expansion and non-expansion…

CQ Roll Call By: Misty Williams The uninsured rate for poor Americans living in rural areas dropped sharply in states that expanded Medicaid under the 2010 health care law, compared with those that rejected expansion, a new study finds. In rural areas and small towns in expansion states, the uninsured rate for low-income adults stood…

PolitiFact By: Manuela Tobias Did Dino Rossi, a Republican Washington state senator running for U.S. Congress, once take away coverage from 45,000 children? That’s what an attack ad by the House Majority PAC claimed. … Using data from the Medical Assistance Administration, the University of Washington Health Policy Analysis Program found most children leaving Medicaid…

The Washington Times By: Tom Howell Jr. Andrew Gillum, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Florida, says the state has left some 700,000 poor residents without health coverage by refusing to sign up for Obamacare’s expansion of Medicaid. … “We had an opportunity to expand Medicaid for over 700,000 of the most medically needy people in…

Miami Herald By: Elizabeth Koh and Kirby Wilson Even if Democrats take back the governor’s mansion, don’t expect Medicaid expansion — let alone Medicare for all — in Florida any time soon. … Democrats hope to seize on the activist energy around the issue, holding rallies in Florida and spotlighting what they say are Republican…

The Hill By: Jessie Hellman The thousands of people who lost Medicaid coverage this month in Arkansas for not following newly implemented work requirements may be a sign of what’s to come in other GOP-led states. … “This policy is clearly not designed to help people find work. It’s designed to take them off Medicaid,”…

Modern Healthcare By: Shelby Livingston A federal judge’s recent decision to vacate a 2014 CMS rule that UnitedHealthcare said resulted in underpayment for Medicare Advantage insurers leaves the federal government with fewer tools to combat upcoding practices that cost the taxpayer-funded Medicare program billions of dollars. … Edwin Park, research professor at Georgetown University’s Center…

WJXT News4Jax By: Christine Sexton More than 2.6 million people in Florida lacked health insurance at some point in 2017, according to data released Wednesday by the U.S. Census Bureau. That means about 12.9 percent of the state’s population last year was uninsured — up from 12.5 percent in 2016 — as Florida continued to…

Bloomberg By: John Tozzi An Arkansas policy backed by the Trump administration that requires people to have a job or lose Medicaid coverage will drop 4,353 people from the health program. … “Proponents of work requirements have it backwards,” said Joan Alker, executive director of the Center for Children and Families at Georgetown University. “Providing…

My Palm Beach Post By: Anne Swerlick It seems counterintuitive, but Medicaid work requirements actually take health coverage away from workers. That’s because workers get tripped up by new red tape, paperwork and bureaucratic hurdles, such as having to report their hours through faulty online portals. Similarly, people with disabilities or caregivers also end up…

Mississippi Public Broadcasting By: Desare Frazier As Mississippi’s Division of Medicaid waits for a decision on it’s work requirement application, health advocates wonder what the projected cost will be to the state. Mississippi State Division of Medicaid’s application for a work requirement would mean recipients would have to work 20 hours per week to keep healthcare…

Vox By: Dylan Scott Poor people in Arkansas are officially starting to lose their Medicaid coverage because of work requirements. It’s that simple. Georgetown University’s Joan Alker looks at the data (emphasis mine): State data show that during the first two months of the Medicaid work requirement, implementation has been deeply flawed and has not…