Research & Reports
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Health Reform Bill’s Pediatric Dental Benefit Could Have A Tremendous Impact on Children’s Health
Meg Booth, Deputy Executive Director, Children’s Health Dental Project In the past months of health reform debate, we at Children’s Dental Health Project have continuously heard the surprise and elation that all of the House and Senate Committees debating this issue included a dental benefit for children as part of their proposals. The disappointment later…
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Federal Options for Improving Public Program Enrollment & Retention
Author: Dawn Horner United Hospital Fund — Presentation Document October 2009
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Children in Health Reform: What’s at Stake?
By Jocelyn Guyer Moms Rising — Presentation Document October 2009
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Setting the Record Straight on Medicaid and Access
In the past few months, opponents of health reform have made many false claims about various aspects of legislation moving through Congress. The most recent example that comes to mind are the charges made about Medicaid during mark-up of the Senate Finance Committee bill. Opponents slung a lot of mud at the Medicaid program and…
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FMAP – A Four-Letter Acronym that Inspires Controversy
By Martha Heberlein As a shared federal-state program, the distribution of financing in Medicaid has long been an area of debate. Whenever changes in the program are discussed (or as in the debate over the stimulus package, increases are considered), distributional questions come up. How much should the federal government pay versus the states? How…
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Digging in Deeper on the Question of Affordable Premiums in the Senate Finance Committee Mark
By Martha Heberlein What is “affordable” has long been a hot-button issue in the health reform debate. In fact, much of the criticism following the release of the Senate Finance Committee mark centered on this very question. Although there is no consensus on the definition, looking at how much low-income families in public program currently…
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Senate Finance Committee Moves Forward: Key Issues for Child and Family Coverage
By Jocelyn Guyer The Senate Finance Committee began its markup yesterday and moved into high gear today, taking votes for the first time on amendments. Senator Baucus released his mark last Wednesday, September 15th and was immediately deluged with over 500 amendments. Yesterday, he released a revised version that incorporates some of the amendments. From…
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CHIPRA Can Help Improve Health Care for Non-English Speakers
Jon Peacock, Wisconsin Council on Children and Families The Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA) approved by Congress early this year gives states financial assistance and policy options that help states maintain and improve coverage of kids. One source of financial assistance that has gotten less attention is an enhanced federal match rate for…
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Access to Care for Children in Medicaid
Medicaidʼs Substantial Coverage Role for Children Medicaid covers more than 23 million children, more than one-quarter of all children, and more than half of low income children.1 Between 1997 and 2006, the proportion of low-income uninsured children fell from to 23 percent to 15 percent;2 success that is largely attributable to the role that Medicaid…
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Is There Oral Health in Health Reform?
Author: Tricia Brooks New England Rural Oral Health Conference — Presentation Documents September 2009
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300% or 400%? A Big Difference for Families
By Martha Heberlein A primary reason many people lack insurance coverage is that they cannot afford it. For the last decade, growth in premiums has far outpaced growth in wages and the cost of private coverage is often out of reach for low- and moderate-income families. One goal of health reform is to provide subsidies…
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Implementation Choices for the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009
The Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA) of 2009 has the potential to transform children’s health care in the United States. This report analyzes selected provisions of the legislation that involve outreach and enrollment, as well as child health quality and measurement. Using input from interviews with a range of stakeholders and a panel…
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Children and Health Care Reform: Assuring Coverage Meets Their Health Care Needs
Because they are growing and developing, children have a distinct set of health care needs that evolve over time and differ from those of adults. Moreover, while as a group children are relatively healthy, one in seven has special health care needs. Given that under reform, many children will be covered through private plans and…
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Congress Should Build On What Works by Looking to CHIP & Medicaid in Health Reform
By Joe Touschner “Fix what’s broken and build on what works.” It’s President Obama’s mantra for health reform. It may be hard to see how Congress will accomplish that when so far we’ve only seen proposals that would eliminate (as we know it) a program that works well–CHIP–and move the children it covers to Medicaid…
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Will Reconciliation Become the Vehicle for Health Reform?
Back in the spring, there was a lot of talk about whether reconciliation could be used as a vehicle to get health reform through Congress (particularly the Senate). The FY 2010 budget resolution ultimately left the option open for Congress to use reconciliation for health reform if an agreement couldn’t be reached by October 15th.…
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Health Reform: Good for Mothers, Good for Families
Julia Kaye, Health Policy Associate, National Women’s Law Center There is a common misconception that all low-income people–or, at least, all poor parents–are eligible for Medicaid. It may derive from a mistaken comparison with Medicare; an assumption that just as Medicare covers all people above a certain age, Medicaid must cover all people below a…
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Improving Enrollment and Retention in Medicaid and CHIP: Federal Options for a Changing Landscape
With the new options in CHIPRA, a new Administration in Washington, and the potential for health care reform on the horizon, the time is right to highlight the most promising federal actions that would close these remaining coverage gaps for uninsured children and adults. This report identifies new strategies as well as some variations in…
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The Future of CHIP – What if it Goes Away?
By Jocelyn Guyer It is becoming increasingly clear that Congress may well dismantle the popular Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) as part of broader health reform. Children and their families have much to gain in health reform, as my colleagues and I have written about elsewhere, but this is a change worthy of its own…
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House Energy and Commerce Committee Passes Health Reform Bill: Highlights for Children and Families
Friday evening the Energy and Commerce Committee approved H.R. 3200, America’s Affordable Health Choices Act. The bill included the amendments and changes I described in my Friday post, including those designed to secure the votes of some of the “Blue Dog” Democrats on the committee without alienating progressive members. The House will now merge this…
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House Energy and Commerce Committee Passes Health Reform Bill: Highlights for Children and Families
This week there was a lot of back-and-forth on health reform as both the House and Senate attempted to get a bill to the floor before the now infamous August recess (which for those of you not up on the Congressional calendar is August 1st to September 8th in the House and August 10th to…