Media Coverage
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West Virginia’s Children Bear Brunt of Medicaid Redesign
Washington – More than 93% of West Virginia children participating in Medicaid have faced health benefit restrictions as a result of the state’s penalty-based “Medicaid Redesign” plan according to a study released today by the Center for Children and Families at Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute. West Virginia received federal approval two years ago to…
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Medicaid Waiver Plan Puts Neediest at Risk, Critics Say
PROVIDENCE –– The critics filled the room. And one by one, they took turns denouncing the unprecedented plan Governor Carcieri says will transform Rhode Island’s health-care system for the better while saving taxpayers tens of millions of dollars over the next five years. “The risks and unknowns of this global waiver as presented are too…
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Few Tap Healthy Behavior Program
Although a program dedicated to rewarding Medicaid recipients for healthy behavior is a good idea, not many are taking the state up on it, the Jessie Ball duPont Fund said in a study released Thursday. The report from fund-commissioned researchers from Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute on the Enhanced Benefits Rewards Program was its sixth…
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Senators Introduce Resolution to Stop Controversial SCHIP Eligibility Directive
A mostly Democratic group of senators July 17 introduced a joint resolution (S.J. Res. 44) that would prevent implementation of a Bush administration directive the lawmakers say limits states’ ability to provide health insurance to children. The resolution authored by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Health Subcommittee Chairman John D. Rockefeller IV…
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Georgetown CCF Director Commends Senators on Efforts to Overturn the Bush Administration SCHIP Directive
“I commend this bipartisan group of Senators for working together to overturn the Bush Administration State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) directive. The directive couldn’t have been imposed on the states at a worse time. As more families are experiencing financial hardship, the directive severely limits states’ options to soften the impact of the economic…
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N.J. Mandates Health Insurance for All Children
New Jersey expanded its subsidized health-insurance program and mandated that all children be provided health insurance under a law signed Tuesday. The bill’s sponsors see it as the first step toward universal health coverage in New Jersey, an effort intended to guarantee access to health care while relieving the pressure on hospitals to provide free…
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While Other States Expand SCHIP Eligibility, Kansas Waits
TOPEKA, June 2 — Starting this week, children in Louisiana are eligible for state-funded health insurance if their families’ incomes fall below 250 percent of the federal poverty guideline — $44,000 for a three person household. In Kansas, eligibility won’t reach the 250-percent threshold for another year, at least. Modest-income parents in Louisiana have access…
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Children’s Healthcare: Stronger Federal Standards Needed
U.S. News and World Report May 28, 2008 Making sure kids have good healthcare is something everybody agrees is important, but a new report shows that some states do a much better job than others of making good on that intention. Aiming to cover more of the roughly 9 million children who lack insurance, both…
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White House May Soften Health Policy
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration appears to be softening a policy that states have complained hindered their efforts to expand healthcare coverage for poor children under a popular state-federal insurance program. In a letter sent to states Wednesday, the administration says it will give states more flexibility to prove that they have enrolled 95% of…
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Bush Policy “Out of Touch” with Children’s Health Care Needs
Washington — Tens of thousands of children have lost the opportunity of affordable health care coverage under a directive issued by the Bush Administration and more will do so in the months ahead, according to a report released today by Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families (CCF). The report is based on a growing…
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States’ Budget Crises Will Hurt Millions
Financially strapped states are looking to take away government health insurance and benefits from millions of Americans already struggling with a souring economy. An Associated Press review of the budgets in all 50 states reveals coverage would be eliminated for hundreds of thousands of poor children, disabled and the elderly. More than 10 million people…
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President Bush’s Second SCHIP Veto Sends America’s Children Disappointing Holiday Present
President Bush’s second veto of bi-partisan State Children’s Health Insurance Program legislation gave 9 million uninsured children a disappointing present this Holiday Season. The veto is a missed opportunity to ensure that 4 million more children have the health care coverage that they need. As the White House is aglow in the spirit of the…
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Tens of Thousands of Children at Risk of Losing SCHIP Coverage Due to Bush Administration’s Aug. 17 Directive
WASHINGTON — Thousands of uninsured children whose states planned to offer them coverage will instead continue to go without coverage as a result of the Bush administration’s Aug. 17 policy directive imposing new federal limits on State Children’s Health Insurance Programs (SCHIP), and tens of thousands of more children will be affected in the coming…
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Lawmakers at SCHIP Impasse While Funding Ends in Mid-November
Washington — Physician organizations expressed dismay and vowed to press forward after the House on Oct. 18 failed to override President Bush’s veto of a children’s health care bill. The American Medical Association will continue to work with lawmakers from both sides of the aisle to pass legislation reauthorizing the State Children’s Health Insurance Program,…
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Market-based Advocates Point to Florida Medicaid Reform
Kansas passed a bill last session implementing a premium assistance program, an idea touted for its reliance on the private insurance market — not the government — for health coverage. Ask Kansas legislators who want a more market-based approach to Medicaid, and they will point 1,000 miles away to Florida, a state that has enacted…
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Families Face Harsh Reality: 2,000 Children Join the Uninsured Each Day
WASHINGTON — Every day another 2,000 children will join the ranks of the uninsured, adding to the 9 million uninsured children currently without private or public health insurance, according to new data released today by the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families. The new analysis, American Families Face Harsh Reality: 2,000 Children Join the…
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CCF Fact Sheet: $83,000 SCHIP Family Doesn’t Exist
The truth about who’s eligible for State Children’s Health Insurance Program coverage has become blurred in the debate to reauthorize SCHIP, with the mythical $83,000 SCHIP family making headlines. The misleading contention that SCHIP covers children at this income level leaves the false impression that SCHIP is a program that no longer focuses on lower…
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Blog: Poll Shows Overwhelming Support for Expanding SCHIP
A new poll conducted for National Public Radio, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and the Harvard School of Public Health shows that 70% of Americans support adding $35 billion to the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) over the next five years, although a smaller majority of 64% favor overriding President Bush’s veto of SCHIP legislation.…
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Children’s Health Bill Dispute Turns to Income Limits
New York Times October 16, 2007 WASHINGTON, Oct. 16 — It is the $83,000 question: Could children with that amount of family income qualify for subsidized health insurance under the bipartisan bill passed by Congress and vetoed by President Bush? When the House votes Thursday on whether to override the veto, Republicans will insist that…
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CCF Reviews Contents of SCHIP Reauthorization Bill
WASHINGTON — The compromise legislation on the reauthorization of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program approved by Congress would set SCHIP on a solid path over the next 10 years, according to an analysis released today by the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families. The legislation would allow states to continue their efforts to…