Research & Reports
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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…
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How did Children Fare in President’s Budget?
(Ed. Note: Budget season kicked off last week with the release of President Obama’s FY 2012 budget proposal. The document outlines the President’s vision for the future by setting funding priorities. Say Ahhh! asked Bruce Lesley of First Focus to share his thoughts on how children and families fared in the President’s budget.) By Bruce…
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Insight from CBPP on Controversial Amendment to CR
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities released an analysis of the impact of an amendment to the continuing resolution that would bar the use of funds to implement any aspect of the Affordable Care Act. The amendment is being offered by Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-MT) to the continuing resolution now on the House floor.…
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CT Governor Helps Kids by Removing Barrier to CHIP Enrollment
By Sharon Langer, Connecticut Voices for Children Although Connecticut – like most states – is facing unprecedented fiscal challenges, and like other northeast neighboring states, challenging wintry conditions, there is some good health care news for children and families coming from the “State of Steady Habits”. Governor Dannel P. Malloy recently announced that Connecticut will implement presumptive eligibility…
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Early Innovators Awarded HHS Health Exchange IT Grants
Drumroll, please! For us techies (or techie-wanna-bes), the waiting is over. And the envelope says…Kansas, Maryland, New York, Oklahoma*, Oregon, Wisconsin and a multi-state consortia consisting of the New England states (sans New Hampshire) are the winners. The awards ranged from a low of $6.3 million for Maryland to a high of $54.6 million for…
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Medicaid and CHIP Stability Protections: Consequences of Repeal
In the past few years, Medicaid and CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program) coverage for low-income children and families facing job loss, seniors in need of health and long-term care services, and people with disabilities has held remarkably steady. This is because the Recovery Act and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) have ensured that states do…
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Three Keys to Setting Up Strong Health Insurance Exchanges
By Joe Touschner Even as the media is focusing on the high-profile debate over court challenges to the Affordable Care Act and efforts to repeal and defund it in the House of Representatives, many states continue to move steadily forward with implementation. California was a leader in enacting legislation to create its exchange last year,…
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Getting To the Finish Line: Investments in State-Based Advocacy Show Real Returns in Covering Uninsured Children
By Liane Wong and Eugene Lewit, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation Even though last week seemed like it was all about the run-up to the Super Bowl, many of us in the nation had another cause to celebrate. February 4, 2011 was the second anniversary of the reauthorization of the Children’s Health Insurance Program…