Early Childhood
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Developmental Screenings for Young Children in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program
Introduction As our nation reaches historic levels of health coverage for children, there is increased interest in further ensuring access to the care needed for children to reach their full potential. Years of research have confirmed the critical importance of the earliest years of a child’s development.[note]See for example, Institute of Medicine. From Neurons to…
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What do we know about developmental screenings in Medicaid and CHIP?
Those of us in child health policy are familiar with the argument that coverage is important to children to ensure preventive care that can catch and address disease and delays early before they become larger hurdles. But once kids are covered, unpacking how and whether that preventive care is achieved, and defining the steps, policy…
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Advancing Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health — One Relationship at a Time
As early childhood policymakers and advocates, we know that early relationships matter – a lot. We know that babies’ earliest relationships and experiences shape the architecture of the brain. Babies who engage with responsive, consistent and nurturing caregivers are more likely to have strong emotional health, or, infant and early childhood mental health (IECMH). Most…
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Reporting on FY 2016 Child Core Set Includes Key Developmental Screening Measure
State voluntary reporting for FY 2016 of the Child Core Set of Health Care Quality Measures is now available on Medicaid.gov. As it has done for the past two cycles, CMS provides a helpful downloadable dataset of state reporting. Fifty states reported at least one measure, with 45 reporting at least half of the 26…
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New York Advocates Explore What Children Need in “First 1,000 Days”
In August, New York State convened a “First 1,000 Days” on Medicaid initiative, to generate recommendations to improve health for young children covered by Medicaid – with explicit interest in outcomes that are long-term and cross-sector, extending beyond health and medical issues. I am helping to lead this effort, which involves dozens of leaders and…
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Graham-Cassidy Would Unravel Innovative and Smart Investments in Young Children
As we celebrate the good news of the highest health coverage levels on record for children, the latest ACA repeal effort in Congress once again threatens to destabilize the foundation of coverage for our nation’s children. We’ve written before about the ways that structural changes to Medicaid through block grants or caps will harm young…
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Top Five Threats to Child Welfare from the Senate Health Care Repeal Proposal
The Senate’s proposal to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and to sharply cut Medicaid payments to states through so-called per capita caps can sound very abstract to social workers and policymakers coping with the day-to-day tragedies and crises of child welfare. But these disastrous changes could take a major step toward becoming law after…
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The Risk of Letting Politicians, Not Pediatricians, Determine Children’s Health Care
Fifty years ago, after learning that half the young men drafted for the Vietnam War failed baseline health exams, the federal government instituted Medicaid’s comprehensive, pediatrician-recommended benefit standard for children known as Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment (EPSDT). The federal benefit standard in Medicaid ensures that low-income and vulnerable children receive the health care services…
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Health Coverage for Parents and Caregivers Helps Children
Children’s healthy development depends to a large extent on the health and well-being of their parents and caregivers. Covering parents and caregivers helps children get the care and family financial stability they need to thrive.
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Top Five Ways ACA Repeal and Medicaid Financing Changes Would Harm our Youngest Children
Editor’s note: We at Say Ahhh! are getting a lot of traction around our “top 5s” on Medicaid cuts and the impact of ACA repeal and Medicaid financing changes on child welfare. So we thought we should continue the trend and focus on young children. We are grateful our colleagues at CLASP agreed to join…
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Cutting Medicaid Would Hurt Public School’s Efforts to Improve Student Success
The School Superintendent’s Association just released a survey documenting the concerns that superintendents and other school leaders have about Congressional plans to cut Medicaid spending. CCF spoke with Sasha Pudelski, author of the report Cutting Medicaid: A Prescription to Hurt the Neediest Kids, about the impact Medicaid cuts would have on students and schools. Can…
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Federal Medicaid Cuts Would Be a Double Whammy for Vulnerable Young Children in Texas
Lately, we’ve been laser focused on potential threats ahead at the federal level. But as state legislative sessions start anew, it’s a good reminder that policymaking swirls ahead in state capitals as well. As our friends at Texans Care for Children described, last year’s Medicaid therapy cuts in Texas are already shutting out some young children…
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Covering Parents and Caregivers Helps Kids – Many Gained Health Coverage Through the ACA
While we focus a lot on the critical importance of health coverage for children, we are equally mindful of the importance of parent coverage and its impacts on children. Say Ahhh! readers well know some of the important ways in which covering parents helps kids. Providing coverage to parents rolls out a welcome mat—meaning more…
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Fact Sheet: Medicaid’s Role for Young Children
Today, more than 45 million children have coverage through Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). For the nation’s youngest children, Medicaid and CHIP play an outsized role, covering 45 percent of children under the age of six, compared to 35 percent of children between the ages of six and 18.
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New Report from Texas: Thousands of Young Kids with Disabilities Excluded from Early Intervention Amid State Cuts
By Rebecca Hornbach and Stephanie Rubin, Texans Care for Children As the President-elect and Congress consider significant changes to the way the federal government works with states to support children and families, and our state lawmakers here in Texas prepare for a legislative session with this new administration in Washington, they should consider our recent…
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Drafting New Medicaid Policy Wonks at the 2016 Alliance for Early Success Partner Summit
Last month, Elisabeth Wright Burak and I travelled to Arizona to take part in our first Alliance for Early Success partner summit. The Alliance for Early Success is a “catalyst for bringing state, national and funding partners together to improve state policies for children, starting at birth and continuing through age eight, with a priority…
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Improving Health Equity Through Early Childhood Primary Health Care and Medicaid
It is in the first 1000 days of life that health practitioners actually can have the greatest impact upon a person’s healthy growth and development. The P.A.R.E.N.T.S. Science (Protective factors, Adverse childhood experiences, Resiliency, Epigenetics, Neurobiology, Toxic stress, and Social determinants of health) points to the critical importance of setting a positive health trajectory during…
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Boosting Developmental Screening Efforts in Pennsylvania
By Joan Benso, President and CEO, Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children A child’s first years of life are marked by tremendous physical, cognitive, social and emotional growth. Detecting possible delays in development during these early years is a critical part of ensuring every child gets to the best possible start and is well prepared to learn…
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New Reports Shed Light on Medicaid and Child Mental Health
We at CCF are doing more to uncover whether children are getting the services they need in Medicaid and CHIP to ensure school readiness and put them on the path to thrive in adulthood. Many Say Ahhh! readers know that it can be tricky to fully understand the exact services covered by Medicaid in each…
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CLASP ED Olivia Golden Invites Children’s Advocates to Help Combat Maternal Depression
Olivia Golden, the Executive Director of the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), joined this month’s CCF state partner call to share her extensive knowledge about maternal depression. She gave an impassioned call to action for children’s advocates to work on policies to address maternal depression and made the following key points. Maternal depression…
