Research & Reports
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Roadblocks to Coverage for Children: Implications of Procedural Cuts in Medicaid and CHIP
The number of uninsured children reached the lowest level on record in 2008 and 2009. The success in covering children is attributed to expanding eligibility and simplifying application and renewal procedures in Medicaid/CHIP. Stability in the programs is a result of the short-term fiscal relief provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and…
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A Look Back: Why ACA Was Needed From A Young Person’s Perspective
By Aaron Smith, Co-Founder of Young Invincibles As we reach the one-year anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, it is important to remember why we fought so hard for this historic law in the first place. What was so necessary and urgent about health care reform that it compelled ordinary Americans to take up this grueling…
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Tennessee Project focuses on Enrolling and Serving Shelter Children
Eric Murray, TennCare Shelter Enrollment Coordinator More than 16,000 Tennessee children experienced homelessness in the 2005-06 school year, according to the America’s Youngest Outcasts: State Report Card on Child Homelessness, and this number has likely grown in the wake of the national economic crisis of the past several years. These children are almost twice as…
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Early Wins for Children on the One-Year Anniversary of Health Reform: Family Perspectives
March 23, 2011 marked the one-year anniversary of the signing of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). There have been early wins for children and their families, even though many of the major provisions do not go into effect until January 2014. This issue brief highlights families from across the country whose children have personally been…
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MACPAC Report Tops My “Must-Read” List
By Martha Heberlein MACPAC (the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission) issued its first mandated report to Congress on March 15th. For those who may get their acronyms muddled, MACPAC was established through CHIPRA and expanded and funded through the ACA. MACPAC (like its long-running sister commission, MedPAC, (which focuses on Medicare) provides technical assistance, policy…
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Waiving Hello to State Innovation?
By Joe Touschner In a continued push to show that states have flexibility under the Affordable Care Act, the Departments of Health and Human Services and the Treasury this week proposed rules for states to apply for innovation waivers under section 1332 of the ACA. Under current law, states could negotiate a waiver of ACA…
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Electronic Signatures: How Do They Work for Medicaid and CHIP?
Online applications and electronic signatures promote administrative efficiency in Medicaid and CHIP. Currently, 29 states accept electronic signatures for online applications for Medicaid for children and 23 of the 38 separate state CHIP programs accept electronic signatures. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires that states must establish an internet website allowing individuals to apply for,…
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Commonwealth Survey Underscores Need to Move Forward on ACA and Hold Steady on Medicaid & CHIP
A survey released today by the Commonwealth Fund underscores the need for states to hold steady in their commitment to health insurance programs such as Medicaid and CHIP while families struggle to find solid footing in the aftermath of the recession. It also provides solid evidence that 2014 and full implementation of the Affordable Care…
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Medicaid and State Budgets: Looking at the Facts
Medicaid continues to make up a large share of state budgets, but its role is far more nuanced than is frequently portrayed. This series of fact sheets is designed to provide a short overview of the role of Medicaid in state budgets, the sources of spending, and details on how much each state spends. The…
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New Issue Brief Looks at Medicaid’s Role in State Budgets
By Martha Heberlein State budgets continue to be a hot issue. As states are grappling with depressed revenues and searching for ways to balance their budgets, some have turned to Medicaid to help fill the gap. But, as with most debates about how much things cost and how money is spent, some of the arguments don’t…
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What Conservative States Want: Health Care for Children
By Christine Sinatra, Texans Care for Children A couple of years ago in a seminar for children’s health advocates, a pollster shared some promising new national data: about 9 out of 10 voters said they support public children’s health insurance programs. Up went the hands of those of us in the room from the red…
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New Tools for New Times: Using Cell Phones to Help Families Enroll and Stay Enrolled in Health Insurance
Mobile Technology: Smart Tools to Increase Participation in Health Coverage.
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ACA Can Build Upon CHIPRA Success by Improving Maternity Care
By Amanda Jezek, March of Dimes Health reform has the potential to provide tremendous opportunities to expand health insurance coverage, but what many people do not realize is that the new law also makes significant investments designed to improve the quality of health care — particularly in Medicaid. These provisions are critical in making sure…
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The Massachusetts and Utah Health Insurance Exchanges: Lessons Learned
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires states to set-up health insurance exchanges. Once up and running, exchanges are expected to connect approximately 29 million people to coverage. Their design should help individuals and small businesses shop for and purchase health insurance, access premium and cost-sharing subsidies, and facilitate health plan competition based…
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Which States Are So Eager for “Flexibility”?
By Martha Heberlein Back in January, a group of current and former Republican Governors sent a letter to Congress asking for “flexibility” to ignore the stability protections in the Affordable Care Act. Today, the Energy and Commerce Committee is holding a hearing that will focus, in part, on this request. Let’s look a little more closely…
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Medicaid Block Grant Would Leave States Holding the Bag
By Edwin Park, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities In a previous post, I explained why block-granting Medicaid or otherwise capping its funding is no solution to rising costs. It’s also a really bad deal for states, as a report CBPP released on February 23 explains. A block grant would shift significant financial risks and costs…
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Dairyland Dust-Up Goes Beyond Worker Rights: Medicaid Power Shift Also Gaining Attention
By Bob Jacobson, Wisconsin Council on Children and Families The eyes of the nation have turned to Wisconsin as an epic struggle drags on between Governor Scott Walker on one side and unions representing public employees and their supporters on the other. For readers who have been on vacation for the last few weeks: Gov.…
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CMS Provides Guidance to States on ACA’s Stability Protection Provisions
By Jocelyn Guyer Today, CMS issued a letter and a frequently asked questions document that outlines how the Administration will work with states to implement the Affordable Care Act’s stability protections. As readers of Say Ahhh! know, a number of Republican Governors have been pressuring HHS to relax these stability protection or “maintenance of effort”…
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HHS Announces Insurance Rate Review Grants
The Department of Health and Human Services just announced $200 million in grants to states to enhance their capacity to review health insurance premium increases. This is good news for families struggling with health insurance premium increases year after year. As Michael Miller of Community Catalyst put it during the HHS conference call, “families’ incomes…
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Eliminating Medicaid and CHIP Stability Provisions (MoE): What’s at Stake for Children and Families
The stability in Medicaid and CHIP can be directly attributed to the short-term fiscal relief and the federal requirements that states maintain their eligibility rules and enrollment procedures until broader health reform is implemented. If the stability provisions are rescinded, states could eliminate Medicaid for anyone who is covered at state option, as well as…