Arkansas
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Arkansas Data are Clear – Trump’s Medicaid Policy is a Dangerous Failure
The primary focus of the Trump Administration’s approach to Medicaid has been to encourage states to impose work and “community engagement” requirements on adults in Medicaid through Section 1115 Medicaid waivers. As regular readers of SayAhhh! know, Arkansas is the first state in the nation to impose these new rules on its Medicaid expansion policy.…
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Arkansas Numbers Tell the Story: Trump’s Medicaid Work Requirement Policy Promotes Coverage Losses not Work
Like many folks who work on Medicaid policy, we’ve been paying close attention to what is happening in Arkansas – the first state in the country to implement a work activities reporting requirement in Medicaid.[1] Earlier this week, the second round of data was released by the state documenting that another 4,109 Medicaid beneficiaries lost…
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Coverage Losses Begin From Mean-spirited Trump Administration Medicaid Policy
The first round of data just released by the state of Arkansas (the first state nationwide to implement a work requirement with a lockout) shows that 4,353 adults lost coverage retroactively to September 1st. The data continue to show a clear lack of awareness about the new reporting requirements with thousands more set to lose…
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Thousands of Arkansans Face Losing Health Coverage Due to New Red Tape Rules
[Editor’s Note: According to the latest press reports, more than 4,500 Arkansas Works enrollees lost their health coverage for failing to comply with the program’s work requirement for three months. CCF staff will continue to monitor this situation and update readers when more information is available.] Thousands of adults in Arkansas will likely lose their…
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Medicaid work requirements to cause over 5,000 low-income Arkansans to lose health care
ThinkProgress By: Amanda Gomez In Arkansas, residents on Medicaid need to report 80-hours-a-month of work or service online to keep their health insurance under new requirements. So far, more than 5,000 people have failed to do so, jeopardizing their continuous coverage. … The state data also has health experts further speculating the intent of Arkansas’…
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After Two Months Under New Work Requirements, Thousands of Arkansans May Lose Medicaid Without Even Realizing the Rules Changed
Arkansas’s Department of Human Services released numbers on its work requirement late Tuesday and they continue to suggest that the rollout of the new work requirements policy is extremely flawed and that thousands could lose coverage by September 1. Since this is now the second month of the work requirement rollout, a large group of…
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Lawsuit Challenges Arkansas’s Medicaid Work Requirement
Back in 2014, Arkansas expanded Medicaid through a section 1115 demonstration waiver referred to as the ‘private option.’ Newly eligible Medicaid beneficiaries enrolled in private market plans on the ACA’s Marketplace and the state defrayed the costs and offered wrap-around benefits. A preliminary evaluation of the private option showed that Arkansas cut its uninsured rate…
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Medicaid Waiver Wars: CMS Strikes Back
Late last month, a federal District Court ruled that the approval of the Kentucky Medicaid work requirements waiver by the Secretary of Health and Human Services was “arbitrary and capricious” because, among other things, even though the record showed that 95,000 people would lose Medicaid coverage, “the Secretary paid no attention to that deprivation.” The…
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State Medicaid and CHIP Snapshots, 2018
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 51 states (including the District of Columbia). Sources are available here. Previous snapshots can be found here.
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Arkansas Medicaid work reporting to be online only
Southwest Times Record By: Benjamin Hardy The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal-leaning D.C.-based think tank, warned that exemption categories to Arkansas’ new Medicaid requirements would inevitably confuse beneficiaries. … Joan Alker, executive director of Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families, pointed out DHS has had serious IT problems in the past.…
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First, get a job
Arkansas Times By: Benjamin Hardy On June 1, with the blessing of the Trump administration, Arkansas became the first state in the 50-year history of the Medicaid program to impose a work requirement on certain beneficiaries. … Joan Alker, the executive director of Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families, has been closely tracking the progress of…
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New GAO Report on Medicaid Waiver Evaluations Identifies Many Shortcomings
Earlier this week, the GAO released a new report that looks closely at Section 1115 Medicaid demonstration evaluations. The states examined are Arizona, Arkansas, California, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, and New York. The report was requested by Republican Members of Congress from the committees of jurisdiction. The report uncovered a number of problems including that…
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Tracking Medicaid Work Requirement Proposals
We here at Georgetown University CCF are closely tracking Medicaid Section 1115 demonstration waiver proposals as states attempt to create new barriers to coverage. There are many troubling proposals pending, but one of the most common is the imposition of a work or community service requirement as a condition of Medicaid coverage. As a reference,…
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Nationwide Rate of Uninsured Children Reaches Historic Low
Nationwide 95.5 percent of children had health insurance in 2016, up from 95.2 percent the previous year—and up from 92.9 percent in 2013, the year before the ACA was fully implemented. While relatively few children rely on the ACA’s Marketplace for insurance, many gained coverage in Medicaid or CHIP when their parents signed up for…
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Section 1115 Medicaid Waiver Comments
Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families contributes an independent perspective to the public dialogue on the future of Medicaid through the lens of children and their families.
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State CHIP Snapshots
The Role of CHIP in Children’s Coverage In 2016 the children’s health insurance coverage rate in the United States dropped to just above 95 percent, an impressive achievement. Key to this success is the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which provides coverage to children who do not qualify for Medicaid but whose families cannot otherwise afford…
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Congressional Plate Full, Womack Says
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette By Doug Thompson The U.S. House has until the end of September to pass a budget, a debt ceiling increase and a bevy of bills important to Arkansas, said Rep. Steve Womack of Rogers. … “Over half of the kids in the state receive benefits” from the program, said Marquita Little, health programs…
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Arkansas’s Laura Kellams Receives Georgetown CCF’s 2017 Bulldog Award
In 2014, we started the “Bulldog of the Year” award, to honor a state advocate that embodies bulldog-like tenacity and stubbornness in the quest to improve health care for children. (Georgetown’s mascot, Jack, is a bulldog.) I was so excited that one of my favorite people on the planet, Laura Kellams, was awarded this year’s…
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Arkansas and Nevada Latest to Eliminate 5-Year Waiting Period for Lawfully Residing Children
The Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 gave states the option to improve Medicaid access by waiving the 5-year waiting period for lawfully residing immigrant children. With Arkansas and Nevada coming on board, this option has now been adopted by 33 states. Earlier this year, the Arkansas legislature passed a resolution to waive…
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Arkansas Health Hub Panel Urges Slight ‘Navigator’ Funding Rise
Arkansas Democrat By Andy Davis A committee of the Arkansas Health Insurance Marketplace recommended Wednesday that the agency slightly increase its spending on outreach workers to help people sign up for coverage. … Committee member Marquita Little, health care policy director for Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, said she is concerned that the state’s…
