Georgetown University CCF Welcomes Edwin Park
Many readers of SayAhhh! already know the amazing health policy work of Edwin Park from his time at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP). For those of you who don’t, you are in for a treat as Edwin joins our team here at Georgetown CCF as a Research Professor at the McCourt School […]
Leveraging Medicaid to Address Social Determinants and Improve Child and Population Health
Introduction For decades, health experts have recognized the decisive influence of social and environmental factors on people’s health, especially among poor and disadvantaged populations. Visual models showing that medical care has less of an impact on health outcomes than social and environmental factors have been circulating for years. Public health experts find this to be […]
Congress Managed to Do Real Damage to Children’s Health Insurance
Vice By: Mark Hay On September 30, Congress failed to re-fund the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which provides access to low-cost insurance for almost 9 million kids and hundreds of thousands of pregnant women in families that make too much to qualify for Medicaid but still need assistance. This lapse, the result of a […]
How Can We Tell Whether Medicaid MCOs are Doing a Good Job for Kids?
Introduction Nearly 40 percent of the nation’s children—37 million—are covered by Medicaid. Of those, over two thirds are enrolled in managed care organizations (MCOs). While not all state Medicaid programs enroll children in MCOs, in 24 of the states that do, more than 80 percent of Medicaid beneficiaries who are children are enrolled in “comprehensive […]
States Work to Curb Drug Spending: Tight Budgets Lead to New Approaches to Managing Costs
Prescription drug spending in the United States continues to grow, totaling $477 billion in 2016. Spending by Medicaid, which is jointly funded by states and the federal government, surpassed $31 billion that year. These rising costs have strained state budgets, leading policymakers to look for strategies—within Medicaid and beyond—to better manage spending while ensuring a patient’s access to […]
How Are “Healthy Behavior” Requirements Working in Iowa?
Iowa is adding to the evidence that requiring specific “healthy behaviors” of Medicaid enrollees is an ineffective way to improve health outcomes. In 2013, Iowa got approval from CMS to expand Medicaid to adults up to 133 percent of poverty by way of an 1115 waiver. That waiver allowed the state to charge premiums to […]
Mississippi Medicaid Waiver Could Lead to Coverage Losses for Very Poor Families
I recently pulled out my calculator to look into the budget neutrality assumptions underlying Mississippi’s Section 1115 Medicaid waiver, and the results were disturbing. I unpacked this waiver in a previous blog. Kansas has a similar request pending and a handful of other non-Medicaid expansion states have suggested they may follow suit (including Alabama, South […]
Administration’s Budget Proposal Includes $1.4 Trillion in Medicaid Cuts
The Administration today released a budget proposal for the fiscal year that starts on October 1 (FY 2019). On the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), the budget proposal is irrelevant. The budget proposes to extend CHIP through 2019; as Kelly Whitener explains, the Bipartisan Budget Act signed into law last week extends CHIP through 2027. […]
Bipartisan Budget Act Funds CHIP for Four More Years and Includes Other Important Health Care Provisions
Congress passed another short-term continuing resolution (CR) early this morning after a brief government shutdown. The Bipartisan Budget Act funds the government through March 23, but this one is very different from the previous CRs. One metric of how it’s different is the length – this one comes in at over 650 pages whereas the […]
Indiana Gets Federal Approval For Medicaid Plan That Could Slice Enrollment
Kaiser Health News By: Phil Galewitz Indiana on Friday became the second state to win federal approval to add a work requirement for adult Medicaid recipients who gained coverage under the Affordable Care Act, but a less debated “lockout” provision in its new plan could lead to tens of thousands of enrollees losing coverage. The federal […]
Indiana’s Waiver Approval Adds More Barriers to Medicaid Coverage
Following the recent approval of Kentucky’s waiver, Indiana becomes the second major waiver approval by the Trump Administration which establishes more barriers to Medicaid coverage. This is an unfortunate but not surprising turn of events. It’s worth noting that Indiana’s own evaluation shows numerous barriers to coverage already existing in Indiana’s HIP 2.0 program, yet […]
Medicaid is Critical for Young Children and Their Parents – Time to Tackle Real Barriers to Work Like Affordable Child Care
Last month, I blogged about a helpful new 50-state report by our friends at the Urban Institute that breaks down coverage for children 3 and under and their parents. This week they released an update to this report with 2016 data and even looked at metro area coverage for young children. The upshot? Again, […]
‘They treated my kids’ health insurance like it was a game’: The battle over CHIP
Washington Post By: Robert Samuels The government shutdown was over, and Varina Mead finally felt a little at ease. The single mother, 38, smiled as she watched her two children put down their backpacks, curl up under on the red couch and watch “Surf’s Up” while she prepared dinner in the kitchen. No longer was […]
Despite getting a 6-year extension, CHIP faces a funding cliff, experts warn
FierceHealthcare By: Paige Minemyer Though Congress renewed CHIP for six years in a stopgap spending measure, the insurance program that covers more than 9 million kids could still face financial issues down the line.The spending bill, President Donald Trump signed into law earlier this month, would extend the Children’s Health Insurance Program for six years, but experts […]
Together, Medicaid and CHIP cover more than 4 in 10 young children in most metropolitan areas
After states faced funding shortfalls because of Congress’s failure to reauthorize the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) by its original September 30, 2017, deadline, Congress last week finally agreed to fund an extension of the program for six years. This agreement was much needed for the children whose coverage hung in the balance at pivotal […]
Children’s health insurance program not out of the woods
Washington Examiner By: Robert King States are facing new problems with the Children’s Health Insurance Program, even as Congress passed a six-year reauthorization for the Children’s Health Insurance Program this week, ending a months-long standoff. … The change to the lower matching rate is to reduce a funding bump that the program received from the […]
Mothers Mentoring Mothers
More than 4.8 million American children (6 percent) lack health insurance. Among uninsured US children, 62-72 percent are eligible for but not enrolled in Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). For uninsured, low-income children, 84 percent are eligible for but not enrolled in Medicaid/CHIP. Racial/ethnic disparities exist in insurance coverage for U.S. children: compared […]
Why CHIP Matters, Prince Alwaleed’s Life Bargain, Homer’s Odyssey Revisted
BYU Radio Guest: Tricia Brooks, Senior Fellow, Center for Children and Families, and Associate Research Professor, McCourt School of Public Policy, Georgetown University. The deal lawmakers struck to reopen the government on Monday only lasts until February 8, but that measure did include a longer-term fix to a program called “CHIP” – the Children’s Health […]
Percent of Children Covered by Medicaid/CHIP by County, 2012-2016
Notes: Children are defined as under 18 years of age. Children with two or more types of coverage are not included in the map. A dash indicates that the percent of children with Medicaid/CHIP coverage in the county are unreported on the map because there are fewer than 10 children residing in the county. Source: Georgetown University […]