About Us
The Center for Children and Families (CCF) is an independent, nonpartisan policy and research center whose mission is to expand and improve health coverage for America’s children and families.
The Center for Children and Families (CCF) is an independent, nonpartisan policy and research center whose mission is to expand and improve health coverage for America’s children and families.
The Hill January 30, 2012 Members of Congress aren’t getting a lot of credit for things they got right these days so we would like to point one out—passage of the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA). On the anniversary of the Children’s Health Insurance Program reauthorization, let’s celebrate a popular law that was […]
By Martha Heberlein As legislative sessions are kicking off, it will be interesting to see which states take steps towards implementing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) this year. A new report from the Urban Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation shows that those states that have been moving most slowly on reform are also the […]
American Medical News January 27, 2012 Twenty-nine states lowered cost-sharing, increased eligibility or improved enrollment systems in 2011, according to a survey. By DOUG TRAPP, amednews staff. Posted Jan. 27, 2012. Washington — Despite continued budget pressures on states, far more states eased than tightened access to Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program in […]
This week’s national football league conference championship games and the theme my colleague, Jocelyn Guyer, picked for her latest blog (where she admits to an obsession with Tom Brady) got me was thinking about statistics and scores as it relates to children’s coverage. While the uninsured rate is the final score, there are a lot […]
By: Tara Mancini and Joan Alker Editor’s Note: Like so many others, we were touched by the story of Samantha Garvey, an inspirational homeless student from New York who is a finalist in the Intel Science Talent Search competition. She was invited to attend President Obama’s State of the Union address tonight as the guest […]
By Jocelyn Guyer There are people in my family who think I am unduly obsessed with Tom Brady. They might even accuse me of co-authoring a paper on states at the forefront of covering our nation’s children that features Massachusetts just so I could say “Just as Tom Brady is in a league of his […]
GOVERNING January 19, 2012 Budgetary pressures and the pending requirements of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) defined 2011 for Medicaid and Children Health Insurance Programs (CHIP). But according to the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured’s annual 50-state survey on eligibility, enrollment, renewal and cost-sharing in Medicaid and CHIP released this week, states maintained […]
MedPage Today January 19, 2012 WASHINGTON — Enrollment in state Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) remained steady in 2011 and into 2012, and some states made it easier for low-income people to have coverage, according to a new survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Read the Full Article
California Healthline January 19, 2012 The number of U.S. residents who had health insurance through Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program remained stable in 2011, despite a struggling economy that created budget strains for states and forced more individuals into poverty, according to a report from the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured […]
Think Progress January 19, 2012 Yesterday, the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured released their annual report outlining trends in Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) eligibility, enrollment, renewal, and cost-sharing policies in all fifty states. As families continue to struggle in a weak economy, Medicaid and CHIP remain essential sources of healthcare […]
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 […]
Kaiser Health News January 18, 2012 Half the states last year made it easier for children and their parents to enroll in Medicaid by streamlining enrollment and using technology advances to verify citizenship requirements, according to a report released Wednesday. Read the Full Story
McKnight’s January 18, 2012 Despite heavily burdened state budgets, states’ Medicaid eligibility and enrollment was stable during 2011, thanks partly to the Affordable Care Act, a new report finds. Without the ACA’s requirement that states maintain current eligibility requirements, many states would have instituted Medicaid cuts to stay afloat, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation’s […]
By Martha Heberlein and Tricia Brooks For those of you who have been anxiously awaiting (and you can count us, too!) the release of the annual survey on Medicaid and CHIP, today is your lucky day. In partnership with the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, we released “Performing Under Pressure: Annual Findings of […]
So my previous blog on this topic talked about how the CHIP/Essential Health Benefits analogy has its limits – still it is interesting to look at the choices that states have made for their benefits packages in separate state CHIP programs. According to data collected and released by NASHP from mid-2008, the most popular choice […]
By Leigha Basini, National Academy for State Health Policy The new year brings many new things: new discussions about CCIIO’s newly released Essential Health Benefits (EHB) Bulletin and benefit provisions in the seemingly still new Affordable Care Act. But state CHIP directors may also be thinking about a slightly older benefit provision–the CHIPRA dental mandate. NASHP, […]
As soon as rumors started flying about what would be in the essential health benefits guidelines I thought hmmmm that sounds a lot like CHIP. At first blush the new guidance does sound like the CHIP model – indeed the guidance says as much (p. 8). But as HHS officials and others have pointed out, […]
By Ann Bacharach, Pennsylvania Health Law Project Congratulations to the 23 states who received bonus payments of more than $296.5 million for successfully increasing their Medicaid enrollment and implementing five of eight simplification strategies. I’m jealous. While Pennsylvania has increased its Medicaid enrollment between 2008-09 and 2010-11 by more than 10%, it has left an […]
By Leigh Cobb, Advocates for Children and Youth and Suzanne Schlattman, Maryland Citizen’s Health Initiative Education Fund Maryland has just received its second Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA) performance bonus from CMS. This recognizes its efforts to identify and enroll eligible children in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Maryland enrolled […]