Media Coverage

Think Progress By: Amanda Michelle Gomez Monday’s announcement that the 2020 census will include a question about citizenship was quickly met with uproar. Census data is in a very big way the bedrock of our democracy, as it’s used to decide congressional seats and electors in each state and how voting districts are drawn. But it’s also…

Fierce Healthcare By: Mike Stankiewicz Obtaining Medicaid coverage in Alabama could become a Catch-22 situation if the state moves forward with additional work requirements, according to health policy researchers. Alabama is currently seeking federal permission to require that parents and caregivers who rely on Medicaid work 20 to 35 hours a week or prove they…

WUSF Public Media By: Julio Ochoa Proposed changes to Florida’s Medicaid eligibility requirements would make it harder for people to get coverage after they become sick. The state is considering doing away with a three-month “retroactive eligibility period,” which allows patients to enroll in Medicaid up to 90 days after they see a provider. The…

Health Payer Intelligence By: Thomas Beaton Alabama’s proposed Medicaid work requirements are likely to lead to health equity challenges by inadvertently creating eligibility barriers for vulnerable populations, according to research from the Georgetown Health Policy Institute. Alabama included the work requirements in a 1115 Medicaid demonstration proposal that aims to improve physical and mental health outcomes for low-income members.…

Nashville Public Radio By: Blake Farmer The Tennessee legislature has designed a budget maneuver to pay for proposed rules around Medicaid. Republican states, including Tennessee, are adding requirements that Medicaid recipients have to work if they can. But enforcement is proving to be costly. It’s been hard for Tennessee’s Medicaid officials to estimate the expense of making sure…

VoxCare Newsletter By: Sarah Kliff VoxCare Guest of the Week: Joan Alker, one of Vox’s favorite area Medicaid experts, is the executive director of Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families. She, like the rest of us, is thinking about the PA-18 special election this week and the political resilience of Medicaid in rural America,…

Equal Voice Newspaper By: Paul Nyhan Alabama has joined a growing number of states proposing new work rules for Medicaid recipients, a move that will hit mothers, Black residents and rural families of all backgrounds harder than most, and threaten health coverage for up to 8,700 parents in 2018, advocates say. … The new work…

Soundbite Services Media Alabama is accepting comments on its bid to impose a Medicaid work requirement – a plan that a new report suggests is a no-win for the state. The report predicts any parent following the work requirement under the proposal would earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, yet not enough to pay…

CQ An estimated 8,700 low-income parents and caregivers in Alabama could be kicked off Medicaid in the first year alone if the state’s plan to create a work mandate becomes reality, a new study finds. The proposed work requirement would disproportionately impact women, African Americans and families in rural areas, according to a Georgetown University…

AJMC By: Allison Inserro Alabama’s proposed plan to institute work requirements in order to obtain Medicaid benefits would fall heavily on mothers, African Americans, and families living in rural communities, according to an analysis by an independent, nonpartisan policy and research center. And because the state has not expanded Medicaid as allowed under the Affordable…

Charleston Gazette-Mail By: Erin Beck The head of the federal agency charged with addressing substance abuse in the United States visited a South Charleston mental health care provider Monday and announced a $330,000 grant to help direct addicts into treatment from emergency rooms. … One treatment provider has announced plans to open a facility in…

Des Moines Register The federal government’s former top Medicaid administrator wants to invest in Iowa’s controversial Medicaid managed-care program. So does one of the country’s largest health-care companies. That news came Monday as state officials disclosed they had received two bids from firms that want to help run Iowa’s $5 billion Medicaid program, which covers…

Arkansas Times The Trump administration has approved a waiver to federal Medicaid rules that will allow Arkansas to impose a work requirement on beneficiaries of Arkansas Works, the program providing health insurance to 285,000 low-income Arkansans under the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion. … The new work requirement will require beneficiaries to regularly document their…

Arkansas Times By: Benjamin Hardy On Monday, the nation’s top Medicaid official traveled to Little Rock to announce federal approval of a measure long sought by Governor Hutchinson: a work requirement for beneficiaries of Arkansas Works, the program providing health insurance to 285,000 low-income Arkansans under the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion. … But many…

Vox By: Dylan Scott The story of Medicaid so far has been of gradual expansion, from the absolutely most vulnerable Americans to a broader social safety net for all Americans in or near poverty. But now, under Trump, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have signaled that they are open to unprecedented policy changes,…

Christian Science Monitor By: Henry Gass Late last month, while recovering in hospital, Kayleeann Hummell had an unusual epiphany after emergency surgery: She was grateful her health problems had happened now. When the high school senior was sent home by the school nurse in intense pain, she headed to a hospital. Within 10 minutes she…

Kaiser Health News By: Phil Galetwitz With federal spending on Medicaid experiments soaring in recent years, a congressional watchdog said state and federal governments fail to adequately evaluate if the efforts improve care and save money. A study by the Government Accountability Office released Thursday found some states don’t complete evaluation reports for up to…

NPR Community Ideas Station By: Megan Pauly The figure has been used over and over: nearly 400,000 Virginians in the Medicaid gap. It’s estimated that if the General Assembly agrees on Medicaid expansion – about 300,000 of those in the gap will sign up for coverage. But who are those individuals exactly? … While the…

Vice By: Mark Hay On September 30, Congress failed to re-fund the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which provides access to low-cost insurance for almost 9 million kids and hundreds of thousands of pregnant women in families that make too much to qualify for Medicaid but still need assistance. This lapse, the result of a…