Utah
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How Would Changes to Federal Medicaid Expansion Funding Impact People in “Trigger” States and Those with Expansion Enshrined in State Constitutions?
Congress is currently considering draconian cuts to Medicaid that would mean millions of low-income Americans lose access to affordable health care. But both the type of federal cuts and how the joint state-federal Medicaid program operates in each state mean that the impact on people living in different states would vary considerably. The major difference…
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Medicaid’s Role in Small Towns and Rural Areas
Key Findings Background One-fifth of people in the United States live in areas that are classified as non-urban. Residents of rural areas and small towns face additional challenges accessing needed health services compared to residents of metro areas for a variety of reasons including acute provider shortages, limited connectivity, and long distances to travel to…
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Federal Funding Cuts to Medicaid May Trigger Automatic Loss of Health Coverage for Millions of Residents of Certain States
Despite virtually no discussion of Medicaid during the election, Medicaid is facing proposals for significant reductions in federal funding. My colleague Edwin Park has already detailed some of the discussion around these cuts – which are being considered in service of facilitating an extension of tax breaks, the majority of which would go to the…
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CMS Makes the Right Call on Utah’s Medicaid Waiver: Where Do Things Stand on Postpartum Coverage?
In a little-noticed but important action, CMS recently notified the Utah Medicaid agency that it should proceed with extending postpartum coverage from 60 days to 12 months under the state plan amendment (SPA) option rather than continuing to pursue its Section 1115 waiver request. At first blush, this seems like a distinction only the most…
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State Medicaid and CHIP Snapshots, 2023
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 50 states and the District of Columbia. Sources available here. Previous snapshots can be found here (2019), here (2018) and here (2017). Check out more interactive…
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Comments on Utah Medicaid Reform 1115 Demonstration Amendment Request for Postpartum Coverage Extension
The Georgetown University Center for Children and Families in conjunction with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities submitted the following comments to HHS regarding the proposed postpartum coverage extension in Utah. Utah Postpartum Coverage Extension Comments
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New Data Underscores Need to Catch up on Routine Childhood Vaccinations
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released updated data on vaccination coverage among kindergartners, showing a continued decline in the share of children with the recommended doses of routine childhood vaccines needed to prevent the spread of harmful diseases. The report includes data on vaccination rates by state for four vaccines: measles, mumps,…
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New Data Finds Number of Utah Uninsured Children Increasing at Alarming Rate
Voices for Utah Children An estimated 82,000 Utah children were uninsured last year, a number that has increased by 39 percent since 2016, according to a new report released by the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families. The report finds that Utah had the third largest increase in its child uninsured rate in the nation.…
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Report: Utah’s rate of uninsured kids is 6th highest in the nation
Salt Lake Tribune By: Bethany Rogers In recent years, Utah has experienced a 39% increase in the number of uninsured children and now has among the nation’s highest rates of kids without health coverage, according to a new report.About 82,000 children in the state — roughly 8.3% of the total — lacked health insurance as…
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Medicaid is more important than ever for low-income families
The Salt Lake Tribune By: Sarah Leetham The Medicaid program will celebrate its 55th anniversary on July 30, the date that Congress authorized the Social Security Act in 1965… Individuals who have Medicaid coverage are also more likely than the uninsured to have a regular source of care and obtain their preventive care services during…
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Could 2020 bring full Medicaid expansion to Utah?
Deseret News By: Wendy Leonard Utah voters approved a ballot initiative to expand Medicaid, but Utah lawmakers said the plan was financially unsustainable and delivered a different plan, including four phases. The first two have been rejected by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on the grounds that the entire Affordable Care Act is…
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States that Expanded Medicaid are Helping to Protect Children from Becoming Uninsured
Our annual report on the state of children’s coverage is out. It’s a deep dive into a disturbing trend – children across the country are losing affordable health coverage, rolling back gains started with the Affordable Care Act. One main cause of this drop in coverage is easily fixed. The 14 states that haven’t expanded…
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National Decline in Child Enrollment in Medicaid and CHIP Slows but Steep Declines Continue in Problem States
In the first four months of 2019, overall child enrollment in Medicaid and CHIP dropped by 122,000 children with declines in 31 states offset by gains in 20 states. As noted in previous blogs and this report, the largest declines are occurring in a handful of states. States with the Largest Percentage Decline – In…
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Utah’s Bad Medicaid Bet: Governor and Utah Legislators Relied on Trump Administration Promises that Didn’t Pan Out
What a mess. After repealing the ballot initiative passed by a majority of Utah voters that offered more affordable health coverage through a simple Medicaid expansion, Utah’s Governor and legislature substituted a law that creates a very complex Medicaid plan aimed at only people with incomes under about $12,000 a year. As it turns out,…
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Anne Dunkelberg Wins Bulldog of Year Award from Georgetown University CCF
One of the main highlights of our annual conference is the presentation of the Bulldog of the Year award. The award recognizes an individual who best embodies the spirit of the Georgetown University mascot, Jack the Bulldog, through their tenacious efforts on behalf of children and families. This year we bestowed the honor on a true…
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In Utah, Another Attempt to Limit Access to Health Care Coverage
Utah revealed the next chapter in its drawn-out Medicaid expansion debate on May 31. Unsurprisingly, it’s yet another attempt to limit access to affordable health care coverage. Rather than heeding the will of the voters and implementing Prop 3 – which would have given 150,000 low-income Utahans access to Medicaid coverage – the state has…
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New Data Show Widespread Decline in Child Enrollment in Medicaid/CHIP Coverage in 2018
We’ve been anxiously awaiting the release of final Medicaid and CHIP enrollment data for 2018, which was expected to be posted almost a month ago. The wait is finally over but not our concerns about what’s happening. In the meantime, more stories about eligibility system issues in a handful of states and states conducting more…
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How Would Utah’s Medicaid Partial Expansion Waiver Break New Ground if Approved
Utah’s legislature recently passed a bill which rolled back the Medicaid expansion passed by the voters in November and substituted a much weaker replacement. With the Governor planning to start enrollment on April 1st into the more limited version, we expect some action by CMS on Utah’s pending Medicaid Section 1115 proposal in the next…
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Designed to Fail: Utah’s Backdoor Repeal of Voter-Approved Medicaid Expansion
In November 2018, a majority of voters in Utah passed a Medicaid expansion ballot initiative providing Medicaid health coverage to low-income parents and other adults. For example, a family of three with an annual income of less than $29,435/year would be eligible. Voters also approved a very small (0.15 percent) sales tax to pay for…
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2016 Maps
The interactive maps and data for 2016 provide information on the percent of adults and children covered by Medicaid and/or CHIP.You can embed these maps on your website by selecting a state on the left then copying the embed code on the right side of the map and pasting it into a post on your…
