Media Coverage

Arizona Public Media By: Vanessa Barchfield Uninsured rates for Native Americans have declined significantly in Arizona and the country as a whole since the passage of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, according to a report from Georgetown University. In 2008, before Medicaid was expanded under Obamacare, 33 percent of Native American children in Arizona were uninsured.…

The Daily World By: Noam N. Levey Communities like this aging West Virginia coal town along the Kanawha River were key to President Donald Trump’s victory last year; more than two-thirds of voters in surrounding Fayette County backed the Republican nominee. … “There is very strong return on the Medicaid investment,” said Joan Alker, executive…

MissouriNet By: Jason Taylor A new study shows the percentage of rural elderly Missourians who are dependent on Medicaid services is twice that of urban elderly residents. … The research titled “Medicaid’s Role for Seniors Living in Small Towns and Rural Areas” from Georgetown University’s Rural Health Policy Project reveals 18 percent of aging citizens…

Vox By: Dylan Scott The headlines of the Senate Republican bill’s Medicaid overhaul should be familiar by now: It ends the generous federal funding for Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion and places a federal spending cap on the program for the first time. … “The days when medical debt and uncompensated care were significant problems in the…

NPR Upshot By: Charles Ornstein No corner of the health care system would be harder hit than Medicaid, the federal-state health insurance program for the poor, if Republican leaders in Congress round up the votes to repeal major portions of the Affordable Care Act. … “All of the bells and whistles and hoops that people…

Jackson Free Press By: Arielle Dreher A majority of Mississippi kids rely on Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program for health care in the state. … The Georgetown University Center for Children and Families analyzed Census data that show that more than 43 percent of children rely on government-funded health insurance in most counties.…

Los Angeles Times By: Noam N. Levey Communities like this aging West Virginia coal town along the Kanawha River were key to President Trump’s victory last year; more than two-thirds of voters in surrounding Fayette County backed the Republican nominee. … “There is a very strong return on the Medicaid investment,” said Joan Alker, executive…

The Washington Post By: Sandhya Somashekhar, Laurie McGinly, Lena H. Sun, and Lenny Bernstein Millions of Americans of all ages and needs would be affected if Republicans in Congress succeed in overhauling major parts of the Affordable Care Act. And the latest maneuvering is only intensifying concerns. … Under a Senate “carve-out” for medically complex…

The New York Times By: Thomas B. Edsall More than a third of Americans believe that Medicaid is akin to welfare, with the implicit subtext that racial and ethnic minorities are the principal beneficiaries. If that’s what they think, they’re dead wrong. … Along similar lines, Medicaid provides benefits to significantly higher percentages of children…

ABC News By: Meredith Hoffman Stacey English has modest desires for her 7-year-old daughter Addison: Be able to eat without gagging and move both her arms. … The Texas cuts are separate from Republican proposals now before Congress, which academics say could cut federal Medicaid spending as part of a law to replace the Affordable…

FactCheck.org By: Lori Robertson and Brooks Jackson Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey made the questionable claim that under the Senate bill “no one loses coverage” gained under the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion. The bill would reduce federal funding to expansion states, leading some states to restrict eligibility, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. … Kelly…

PolitiFact By: Joshua Gillin Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said all the media coverage that declares the Republican health care bills would cut Medicaid is wrong, because he claimed the program actually gets a significant boost over the years. … “There are two reasons Medicaid costs go up: More people are being served and the…

AMA Wire By: David Barbe A lot of big numbers have been tossed around in the days since Senate leaders unveiled a “discussion draft” of legislation—dubbed the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017 (BCRA)—that would dramatically reshape how our country’s health system is financed. … 37 million is another number that comes to mind. That…

Atlanta Black Star By: Cecilia Smith For several years, the GOP has rallied around a common goal, namely, stripping health care from millions of citizens. Now, it looks as if they may be closer to success, with Senate Republicans unveiling a bill that will effectively chip away at the Affordable Care Act. … “This is…

Politico Pro By: Dan Diamond It’s expected as soon as today, and it’s going to predict a big coverage decline. And that will throw another headwind in front of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as he attempts to win over still-uncommitted Republican senators ahead of a planned Thursday vote. … How rural America depends on…

PolitiFact By: Joshua Gillin Proposed changes to Medicaid shouldn’t worry people currently using the health care program for the very poor, White House adviser Kellyanne Conway said, because their coverage will continue. … Joan Alker, a public policy professor and executive director of the Center for Children and Families at Georgetown University, said that even…

Vox By: Dylan Matthews The Better Care Reconciliation Act, Senate Republicans’ plan to repeal and replace Obamacare, would if passed lead to one of the largest redistributions of income in American history, just as Obamacare itself did. … Joan Alker, a Medicaid expert at Georgetown University, estimates that those eight states alone could lead to…

Huffington Post The head of the National Rural Health Association said the organization will oppose the Senate’s healthcare bill because the legislation will hurt rural America. … Among these are deep cuts in Medicaid spending and an end to Medicaid expansion. About 45 percent of rural children use Medicaid, compared with 38 percent in metropolitan…

Time By: Alicia Adamczyk, Elizabeth O’Brien The Senate on Thursday finally unveiled draft language for the Better Care Reconciliation Act, its replacement for the 2010 Affordable Care Act. Like its predecessor, the House’s American Health Care Act, the proposal would jeopardize coverage for lower-income and middle-class Americans in order to deliver big tax breaks for…

Politico By: Christine Sexton The partisan divide in Congress over health care policy predictably rippled through the ranks of Florida lawmakers on Thursday after the Senate finally unveiled its long-awaited plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. … Joan Alker, executive director of the Center for Children and Families and Research Professor at…