National
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We Can Reach the Finish Line on Health Coverage for Hispanic Kids
Ensuring that every child in America has the protection of health care coverage is an attainable goal. Today, in partnership with National Council of La Raza, we released a 50-state analysis of health coverage for Hispanic children. Our analysis found that Washington, DC is just a step away from the finish line already with 99…
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New Kaiser Survey Finds More States Intend to Extend Primary Care Rate Increase
By Sophia Duong In a previous post, I summarized the initiatives taken by Congress and states to extend the payment rate increase for primary care services, set to expire on December 31, 2014. At the time, six states were reported to finance the primary care bump through 2015 with their own state funds. Now, Kaiser…
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Advocates File Civil Rights Complaint with HHS on Coverage Termination Day
Yesterday, on the day that 115,000 people who bought coverage in the federal marketplace lost coverage, the National Immigration Law Center filed two formal administrative complaints with HHS’s Office for Civil Rights alleging that the federally facilitated violated longstanding federal civil rights law and the Affordable Care Act’s anti-discrimination provisions. They request that OCR immediately…
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Early Evidence that ACA Improves Coverage of Hispanics
The CDC survey data released earlier this week provides hope that the ACA can improve coverage rates for Hispanics, a group with persistently high rates of uninsurance. In the first three months of 2014, the percentage of uninsured Hispanics decreased from 30.3% to 27.2%. This is particularly hopeful because we know that many more people…
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Spread the Word: Deadline One Week Away for Immigrant Communities Needing to Verify Marketplace Eligibility
Immigrant communities face a critical deadline on Friday, September 5: submit additional documentation to verify their citizenship or immigration status, or potentially lose health coverage through the marketplace at the end of September. Yesterday we helped sponsor a press briefing primarily for ethnic media to help spread the word and educate immigrant communities about the…
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Medicaid Primary Care Payment Rate Bump Is Worth Extending
By Judy Solomon, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities An increase in Medicaid primary care payment rates that was included in health reform is scheduled to expire at the end of this year. But with the need for cost-effective Medicaid primary care rising across the country, the current physician rates should be maintained — and…
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Improving Enrollment for Immigrant Families Could Cut the Number of Uninsured Kids in Half
It’s hard to believe that the next open enrollment period is only 5 months away. As the federal marketplace and states work to fix enrollment challenges, it’s important to consider what groups are most likely to be uninsured and smooth their pathway to coverage. A study recently came out that makes it clear that enrollment…
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Health Coverage for Immigrant Children and Families? Two New Studies Support Moving Forward
Two new studies published in Health Affairs support state efforts to expand coverage for immigrant children and families. Coverage for immigrant kids and pregnant women In 2009, the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act provided a new opportunity for states to receive federal funding to cover lawfully present low-income kids and pregnant women in Medicaid…
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Medicaid Provides Needed Access to Care
Medicaid and CHIP significantly improve access to needed health care for the populations they cover. As of June 2011, Medicaid covered 25 million adults and over 32 million children (along with its smaller companion program, CHIP). The fact sheet indicates Medicaid enrollees have comparable access to care as those with private coverage and much better access and fewer…
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Google Maps Can Help Advocates Target Outreach Efforts
By Tara Mancini Knowing where the uninsured children are is the first step toward connecting them with coverage. In our November brief on children’s health insurance coverage, we named the 20 counties with the highest number of uninsured children. I’ve uploaded all of the 1-year and 5-year American Community Survey (ACS) data into Google maps so that you can…
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CBPP Finds New Plan to Repeal ACA Would Lead to Deep Cuts for Medicaid Beneficiaries, Higher Costs and Fewer Consumer Protections
By Edwin Park, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), and Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) unveiled a new plan to repeal all of health reform (the Affordable Care Act or ACA) except for certain provisions related to Medicare, cap federal Medicaid funding, and create a new tax credit for people…
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Translating Eligibility and Enrollment Lingo
My colleagues just released a helpful update on state progress in creating more consumer-friendly eligibility and enrollment systems. If you’re like me, when reading Medicaid eligibility terms like “MAGI conversion” and “flat file,” your mind wanders to a foreign money exchange or even a children’s book character—yes, the omnipresent Flat Stanley—rather than focusing on people…
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Children’s Health Coverage on the Eve of the Affordable Care Act
Georgetown University Center for Children and Families researchers analyzed health insurance data from the Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey to get a closer look at children’s coverage trends. On the eve of the implementation of the Affordable Care Act coverage expansions, the authors found important lessons from the success the U.S. has had in covering children. The number of uninsured…
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Getting Into Gear for 2014: Findings from a 50-State Survey of Eligibility, Enrollment, Renewal, and Cost-Sharing Policies in Medicaid and CHIP, 2012-2013
As 2013 begins, implementation of the major provisions of the ACA, including its coverage expansions, is less than a year away. Following the Supreme Court ruling to uphold the ACA and the 2012 elections, efforts to prepare for 2014 are moving into high gear in many states. The majority of states are capitalizing on web-based…
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Eligibility and Enrollment Systems: An Advocate’s IT Toolkit
Efforts to improve public coverage programs have long been stymied by the prevalence of outdated IT systems that are the source of numerous consumer issues from confusing and conflicting notices to lost eligibility records to inadequate data to measure program performance. Meanwhile the state of technology and web-based services has advanced significantly, leaving many Medicaid…
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Uninsured Children 2009-2011: Charting the Nation’s Progress
Georgetown University Center for Children and Families researchers analyzed health insurance data from the Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey to get a closer look at children’s coverage trends. The authors found that the nation continues to make steady progress covering children, despite no reduction in the number of children living in poverty. A strong commitment to…
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More Interesting Tidbits from the CBO ACA Score
By Martha Heberlein Our blog post from last week gave the high-level numbers of CBO’s updated score on the ACA, but we wanted to pass along a few more nuggets. If a state fails to extend Medicaid to low-income uninsured adults, it will increase the cost of covering Exchange participants. In states that elect to…
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Medicaid Coverage for Parents under the Affordable Care Act
This issue brief presents national estimates of the number and characteristics of uninsured parents who would be eligible for Medicaid in 2014 according to whether they have child who is currently enrolled in Medicaid/CHIP coverage or an uninsured child who is eligible for Medicaid/CHIP but not enrolled. State-specific data are also provided on the ten…
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Sequestration Replacement Cuts Could Unravel the Country’s Success in Covering Children
The House Energy and Commerce Committee, charged with finding offsets to avoid reductions to defense spending, has passed a package of cuts totaling $113 billion. The package includes the elimination of two provisions that have helped to drive down the number of uninsured children to the lowest level on record: 1) repeal of the stability…
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Essential Health Benefits Resources List
The following is a resource list related essential health benefits.