Kansas
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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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Kansas Eliminates Backlog with Commonsense Solutions to Improve Efficiency
By Suzanne Wikle, Kansas Action for Children Lately it seems hard to find good news about Medicaid, but here in the heartland we have some truly wonderful news about our Medicaid and CHIP program, collectively known as HealthWave. As of late March, an enrollment backlog that topped 30,000 applications at one time, has been eliminated…
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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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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 If the stability provisions are rescinded, states could eliminate Medicaid for anyone who is covered at state option, as well as…
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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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CHIPRA Provides More Funds to Help States Pay for Language Services
By Mara Youdelman, National Health Law Program As immigrant communities expand across the United States, many healthcare providers and patients have encountered communication barriers making it difficult for patients to receive proper care. Yet proper communication is as important to healthcare as a stethoscope. You can’t listen to someone’s heart without a stethoscope. How can…
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Holding Steady, Looking Ahead: Annual Findings of a 50-State Survey of Eligibility Rules, Enrollment and Renewal Procedures, and Cost Sharing Practices in Medicaid and CHIP, 2010-2011
Over the past year, as the nation’s attention was focused on the country’s economic problems and the debate over the passage of broader health care reform, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) continued to play their vital role of providing coverage to millions of people who otherwise lack affordable coverage options. In 2010,…
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Kansas Tackles Backlog with Commonsense Solutions to Improve Efficiency
By Suzanne Wikle of Kansas Action for Children At a time when I can pay my bills using an Iphone or Blackbery, it seems a no-brainer that states should be pursuing more technological fixes to simplify and streamline processes to ensuring that families are able to access health insurance through Healthwave, Kansas’ Medicaid and Children’s Health…
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More than a Dozen States are Moving Forward On Children’s Health Coverage, As California Moves Backward on Covering Uninsured Children
By Jocelyn Guyer During tough budget times, most states have maintained their commitment to covering uninsured children. At least eighteen states have even further strengthened coverage for uninsured children, despite budget problems, as the recession has increased the need. While many states have prioritized covering uninsured children, California lawmakers voted to deny coverage to nearly…
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Bipartisan Effort Delivers Needed Health Care for Kansas Kids
Suzanne Wikle, Director of Health Policy, Kansas Action for Children Last week, Liz Arjun blogged about the fact that CHIPRA has encouraged many states to move forward on health coverage for children despite achallenging budgetary climates. We took a look at Colorado’s expansion in a guest blog entry last week. This week, we want to…
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More States Are Saying Yes to Kids Coverage
One of the most common questions we get at CCF is, “What are states doing to cover kids?” Since CHIP was reauthorized in February, this question has taken on a new twist: “Are states doing more to cover children since the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA) of 2009 was signed by President Obama?” The answer…
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Weathering the Storm: States Move Forward on Child and Family Health Coverage Despite Tough Economic Climate
This report provides a first look at state activity after the passage of CHIPRA and the availability of increased Medicaid funding in the economic stimulus package. It finds that despite unprecedented fiscal challenges, all but a few states held steady on children’s health coverage, and twenty-three states took steps to move forward. This progress on…
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States Moving Forward: Children’s Health Coverage in 2007-08
To a surprising extent, given the weakening economy and growing fiscal strains, states have continued to move forward in their efforts to expand and improve health coverage for children. Notably, over the last year, nineteen states provided health coverage for more uninsured children and families by expanding Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program…
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Closing the Coverage Gap: Trends in Health Insurance Coverage for Children
From 1996-97 to 2003-04, the uninsured rate of low-income children was reduced by a third; however, the national data mask significant variation across the states in how children are faring. To provide a state-specific perspective on the issue, this brief examines health insurance trends for children in all 50 states and the District of Columbia…