Research & Reports
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Medicaid’s Role in Small Towns and Rural Areas
Key Findings Background One-fifth of people in the United States live in areas that are classified as non-urban. Residents of rural areas and small towns face additional challenges accessing needed health services compared to residents of metro areas for a variety of reasons including acute provider shortages, limited connectivity, and long distances to travel to…
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How Medicaid Supports Student Success
In partnership with: Medicaid provides health coverage to almost half of America’s children, giving them access to the care they need to show up for school ready to learn. Children covered by Medicaid are more likely to receive the preventive health care that keeps them in school, annual checkups that allow them to participate in…
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Medicaid Managed Care and Early Childhood Development: A 12-state Scan
Summary and Key Findings The first five years of a child’s life are a period of rapid growth and development. During this time, frequent check-ups are essential to monitor a child’s progress so that if a problem is identified an intervention can occur before things get worse. Medicaid, a primary source of health care coverage…
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How Covering Adults Through Medicaid Expansion Helps Children
Opponents of Medicaid expansion often argue that enacting expansion will harm “traditional” Medicaid beneficiaries including children. This brief cites studies finding the opposite is true. Studies have documented multiple positive effects for children of expanding coverage for parents and other adults including higher child coverage rates, lower rates of infant mortality and higher birthweights, and…
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Ensuring Continuity of Medicaid Coverage for Former Foster Youth
Youth transitioning out of foster care are at both a challenging and pivotal time of their lives. Having health coverage through Medicaid provides security and stability as they make the steep climb to adulthood, often on their own. The authors of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) took into account the needs of former foster youth and the fact…
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An Explanation of Final Medicaid Managed Care and Access Rules
Executive Summary While the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has overseen the steady growth in Medicaid coverage over recent years, CMS has faced the additional challenges of ensuring that coverage truly leads to meaningful access to care and that there is strong oversight. CMS recently finalized two key regulations: “Ensuring Access to Medicaid…
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A Look at Medicaid and CHIP Eligibility, Enrollment, and Renewal Policies During the Unwinding of Continuous Enrollment and Beyond
Executive Summary In early 2023, states began final preparations for the end of the pandemic-related Medicaid continuous enrollment provision following passage of the Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) of 2023, which lifted the requirement effective March 31, 2023. During the three-year pause on Medicaid disenrollments, Medicaid and CHIP enrollment grew by 32% from 71.3 million to…
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State Use of Section 1115 Demonstrations to Support the Health-Related Social Needs of Pregnant and Postpartum Women, Infants, and Young Children
By: Allexa Gardner, Tanesha Mondestin, Nancy Kaneb, and Juliana St Goar Download the PDF Executive Summary In an effort to better address the maternal and infant health crisis, states are increasingly seeking to use Medicaid to cover health-related social needs (HRSN) services and supports for pregnant and postpartum individuals and their children, particularly through Medicaid…
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Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024: Medicaid and CHIP Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Provisions Explained
Download the Full Report Here On March 9, 2024, President Biden signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024 (P.L. 118-42). The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024 (CAA 2024) includes a number of Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) provisions related to mental health and substance use disorder (SUD) care and coverage including provisions extending…
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State Medicaid and CHIP Outreach Resources and Enrollment Assistance Snapshot
Introduction At the end of March 2023, states began the process of redetermining eligibility for more than 90 million Medicaid enrollees after a three-year pause on disenrollment during the COVID-19 pandemic. By December 2023, Medicaid net enrollment had declined by more than 8 million people, including over 4 million children. While a drop in enrollment…
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Child Medicaid Disenrollment Data Shows Wide Variation in State Performance as Continuous Coverage Pandemic Protections Lifted
Download the Full Report (PDF) Background During the COVID-19 public health emergency, states received increased federal Medicaid matching rates in exchange for a commitment to maintain continuous coverage for those enrolled in Medicaid. With the public health emergency winding down, as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA), 2023, Congress ended the continuous coverage requirement…
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Medicaid Eligibility and Enrollment Rule Explainer
Download the Full Explainer (PDF) On April 2, 2024, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services published the second part of a two-part final rule that simplifies the eligibility and enrollment processes for Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and the Basic Health Program (BHP).1 The rule eliminates certain access barriers for children enrolled…
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A Profile of Mississippi’s Low-Wage Uninsured Workers (Updated March 2024)
Download Full Report (PDF) Introduction Mississippi remains one of only ten states in the nation that have not yet accepted enhanced federal Medicaid funding to cover low-income adults with incomes up to $20,783 per year1. In addition to a permanent enhanced federal match of 90% that is available to states to cover this group, the…
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State Medicaid Opportunities to Support Mental Health of Mothers and Babies During the 12-Month Postpartum Period
Download Full Report (PDF) By: Elisabeth Burak, Anne Dwyer, Tanesha Mondestin, and Kay Johnson Most states have moved to adopt a new state option to extend Medicaid coverage to all enrolled pregnant people from 60 days to 12 months following a pregnancy. As the predominant payor of U.S. births and health care to postpartum people…
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Medicaid’s Pandemic-Era Continuous Coverage Protections Helped Reduce Number of Uninsured Children
Download Report PDF Introduction Data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) for 2022 finds that the number of uninsured children continued to decline over the pandemic period – most likely as a consequence of the continuous coverage protection in Medicaid put in place by one of the first COVID-19 rescue packages, the…
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Medicaid Managed Care, Maternal Mortality Review Committees, and Maternal Health: A 12-State Scan
Download the Full Report Introduction The United States is in the midst of an ongoing maternal mortality crisis and Medicaid, the health insurer for low-income Americans, has an important role to play in addressing it. Medicaid is the nation’s single largest maternity care insurer, paying for more than 40% of all births on average across all states,…
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State Medicaid and CHIP Snapshots, 2023
The Georgetown University Center for Children and Families (CCF) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) created factsheets underscoring the importance of Medicaid in providing coverage for children in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Sources available here. Previous snapshots can be found here (2019), here (2018) and here (2017). Check out more interactive…
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Medicaid Support for Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health: Lessons from Five States
By: Kay Johnson and Elisabeth Burak Five states’ journeys to strengthen Medicaid support for infant and early childhood mental health (IECMH) –California, Colorado, Michigan, North Carolina, and Washington — offer lessons for other states seeking to more effectively prevent, identify, and address mental health conditions among young children in Medicaid. Lessons speak to the importance of: 1. Leadership…
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New Brief: Where Things Stand on the Medicaid and CHIP Provisions of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act
Medicaid (alongside the Children’s Health Insurance Program) covers more than half of all children in the U.S. and serves as the single largest payer of behavioral health services. Yet, timely access to mental health services remains elusive for many children and families. In June 2022, President Biden signed into law the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act…
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Medicaid’s Coverage Role in Small Towns and Rural Areas
Medicaid’s vital role as an insurer for low-income families, people with disabilities and chronic health conditions, and individuals in need of long-term services and supports in the nation’s health care system has continued to grow over the past decade. According to federal administrative enrollment data, one-quarter of all residents of the United States and more…
