Florida
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Taking Stock of Important Milestones as ACA Turns Two
By Kevin Lucia, Georgetown University Health Policy Institute’s Center on Health Insurance Studies When a child turns two, it’s natural to take stock of all the milestones they have achieved such as first steps, first words and first solid foods. Some parents are even organized enough to document all these achievements in a baby book. …
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ACA Protects and Improves Access to Preventive Care for Children
Medicaid and CHIP have helped millions of children access preventive care at no cost to families. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) takes this commitment further by removing cost and coverage barriers that could deter families from taking full advantage of preventive care services in private insurance plans. Since becoming law, the ACA has helped maintain…
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Good News for Florida’s Kids: The State’s Attempt to Charge Unaffordable Medicaid Premiums Won’t Go Forward
Friday was a good day for Florida’s kids. The federal government indicated that the state would not be allowed to proceed with a proposal, passed by the legislature last spring, to charge all Medicaid beneficiaries enrolled in managed care plans $10 a month regardless of income or age. It is important to note that much…
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Performing Under Pressure: Annual Findings of a 50-State Survey of Eligibility, Enrollment, Renewal, and Cost-Sharing Policies in Medicaid and CHIP, 2011-2012
Amid ongoing state budget pressures, a requirement in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that states maintain eligibility in Medicaid and CHIP was central in preserving coverage during 2011. In addition, more than half of states (29) made improvements in their programs. Most of these improvements involved greater use of technology to boost program efficiency and…
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Proposed Medicaid Premiums Challenge Coverage for Florida’s Children and Parents
Florida’s proposed changes to its Medicaid program include a requirement for nearly all Medicaid beneficiaries, including children, who are enrolled in managed-care plans to pay a $10 monthly premium as a condition for Medicaid eligibility. This could result in 800,000 Florida children and parents – the majority of them children in very-low-income families –leaving Florida…
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Looking Ahead to 2012, What Changes Are In Store for Florida’s Medicaid Program?
Medicaid is a critical part of Florida’s health care system. It covers 3.1 million people in the state, the majority of whom are children. In 2006, a five-year pilot program that replaced traditional Medicaid with an unusual managed-care model and other features that required a Section 1115 waiver from the federal government. In 2012, there…
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Despite Economic Challenges, Progress Continues: Children’s Health Insurance Coverage in the United States from 2008-2010
In this paper, health insurance data from the Census Bureau’s annual “American Community Survey” was analyzed in order to get a more accurate depiction of children’s coverage. Even though the number of children living in poverty has increased almost 19 percent over a three-year period, the number of children without health insurance declined 14 percent–…
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Fulfilling the Promise of 2014: Aligning and Simplifying Medicaid and CHIP Enrollment for Children and Parents
Simplification and alignment of policies for children in Medicaid and CHIP have helped states fill the gap in private insurance and achieve record levels of coverage for 90% of our nation’s children. These lessons are carried forward in the Affordable Care Act’s expansion of coverage through Medicaid and the Exchanges. The ACA envision a customer-friendly,…
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Medicaid and its Role for Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs (CYSHCN): A Family Perspective
The nation’s children have a lot at stake in the ongoing federal and state level debates over Medicaid’s role in deficit reduction efforts. Children and youth with special health care needs (CYSHCN) are most vulnerable to Medicaid cuts because so many rely on it. Approximately 14% (10.2 million) of children meet the criteria of having…
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Florida Medicaid Transformation: Bad Policy & Bad Politics
Governor Rick Scott has now officially set in motion an ill-advised transformation of Florida’s Medicaid program that will place the health care of most Florida Medicaid beneficiaries into the hands of for-profit companies. The new law expands a managed care pilot program operating in five counties under a Section 1115 federal waiver. In moving ahead…
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CMS Asks Florida ‘Where’s the Beef’? (Do States Need a Waiver to do Managed Care?)
Last week the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services sent a letter to the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration in response to the state’s request for waiver authority to expand managed care statewide. CMS responded by saying that their Medicaid waiver extension request cannot be granted because it lacks a specific plan. The state’s…
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Understanding Florida Medicaid Today And the Impact of Federal Health Care Reform
Sound information on Florida’s Medicaid program is especially timely because of the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which will move more low-income people into Medicaid by expanding eligibility levels in 2014. The highly politicized nature of the debate about Medicaid and health reform has lead to some exaggerated state estimates of Florida’s cost…
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As Legislators Wrestle to Define Next Generation of Florida Medicaid, Benefits of Reform Effort Are Far From Clear
Medicaid is a critical part of Florida’s health care system. It covers about 27% of the state’s children, pays for 51% of all deliveries and nearly 66% of nursing home days. In 2006, a five-year pilot program replaced traditional Medicaid with an unusual managed-care model and other features that required a Section 1115 waiver from…
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A Closer Look at Florida’s Medicaid Program
The Florida legislature is in the midst of a hot and heavy debate about the future of the state’s Medicaid program. One of the key questions being discussed is whether or not to expand the state’s controversial Section 1115 Medicaid waiver across the state and across all populations. The waiver is coming to the end…
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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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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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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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Florida Ruling on ACA Generates Some Surprise and a lot of Confusion
By Jane Perkins, National Health Law Project This past Monday, Florida district judge Roger Vinson issued his decision in one of the most closely watched cases challenging the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). At least 24 such cases have been filed in federal district courts around the country. The Florida case is different…
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A Closer Look at the Florida Ruling
(This blog originally appeared on the Health Policy Hub) By Eva Marie Stahl, Community Catalyst Vinson toasts anti-ACA supporters with tea Alas, the Judge Roger Vinson (Florida v. HHS) ruling is here. The Florida-led case remains the media darling of the handful of cases challenging health reform that are rolling through the Federal courts in…
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Florida’s Proposed Medicaid Long-Term Care Changes Raise Host of Questions About Impact
Florida’s 2011 Managed Care Legislation, HB 7107, established “Medicaid Managed Care,” a new statewide managed care program for all covered services. Two separate components are anticipated for the new program: the Florida Long-Term Care Managed Care program, slated for implementation first, and the Florida Managed Medical Assistance program, an expansion of the Medicaid pilot program…