Oklahoma
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Oklahoma Musicians: Stand (Let Your Voice Be Heard) on Expanding Medicaid (Video)
Last week, a group of talented musicians in Oklahoma released a powerful recording about the need to fill the massive gap in health care coverage in their state. (Hat tip: OK Policy Institute.) Noting that over 650,000 state residents – including many professional musicians – do not have health coverage despite working at one or…
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Children’s Coverage on the Eve of the Affordable Care Act
Here’s a good news story on health coverage that the public is largely unaware of. The number of uninsured children continues to decline to historic lows – a remarkable accomplishment given the high childhood poverty rate and tough economic times. Yet a majority of Americans are unaware of this achievement. In a poll CCF commissioned…
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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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Census Shows Uninsured Rate Declines for Children; Poverty Up in Southern Region
The U.S. Census data released today held some good news on the health coverage of America’s children and families. While poverty remained unacceptably high, the rate of uninsured children continued to decline. The uninsured rate for children declined from 9.4 percent in 2011 to 8.9 percent in 2012. This is mainly due to the success…
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Insure Oklahoma Extension Paves Way for Longer Term Solution
By David Blatt, Oklahoma Policy Institute Last Friday, Oklahoma received formal word that the federal government has agreed to extend Insure Oklahoma, the state’s publicly-funded premium assistance health insurance program, until the end of 2014, subject to certain program changes. This one-year extension means that individuals and businesses that participate in the program will not…
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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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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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State Fact Sheets Highlight Importance of Medicaid Coverage for Children
By Ielnaz Kashefipour, American Academy of Pediatrics The American Academy of Pediatrics, in partnership with the Children’s Hospitals Association (formerly NACHRI), this week produced updated state-by-state fact sheets that explain the importance of the Medicaid program for children. These fact sheets are used in federal and state advocacy efforts to protect the Medicaid program from…
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Medicaid Coverage for Parents under the Affordable Care Act – State Fact Sheets
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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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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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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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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Foster Kids Rely on Medicaid
By Laura Boyd, Foster Family-based Treatment Association What is treatment or therapeutic foster care? Many in the child welfare ranks do not know; many are confused and unsure about TFC. Treatment or Therapeutic Foster Care (TFC) is specialized foster care consisting of intensive behavioral health services delivered usually in foster homes by licensed mental health…
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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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Oklahoma Makes U-Turn and Rejects Early Innovator Grant
By David Blatt, Director of Oklahoma Policy Institute In the new national health care law (the Affordable Care Act, or ACA), exchanges are state-level competitive marketplaces for individuals and small businesses to purchase insurance. After winning a $54 million Early Innovator grant earlier this year, Oklahoma was poised to become a national leader with a…
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CMS Continues to Invest in and Support Innovation and State Flexibility in Medicaid
Regardless of who pays for health care services, the U.S. health care system is in desperate need of dramatic change to make it the best it can be – affordable, sustainable and focused on outcomes – without leaving millions of Americans, mostly low-income or those with existing health conditions, uninsured. The good news is that…
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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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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,…