Eligibility & Enrollment
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Many Working Parents and Families in Georgia Would Benefit from Extending Medicaid Coverage
Georgia is one of the 19 states that have elected not to accept federal funding under the ACA to extend Medicaid coverage to parents and other low-income adults and is not actively considering plans for coverage. Consequently, parents in Georgia are not eligible for Medicaid or premium tax credits if their incomes exceed 39 percent of…
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Children’s Uninsured Rate Drops Significantly Thanks to the Affordable Care Act
By now you have heard the news that from 2013 to 2014 the country saw the greatest single year decline in the number of uninsured Americans on record with the overall uninsured rate falling to 10.4%. For children, using the American Community Survey data that was just released, the decline was smaller, but only because…
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What to know about the Census Bureau’s new ACS and CPS data on health coverage
On September 16, 2015 the Census Bureau will release data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) and American Community Survey (ACS), providing updated income, poverty, and health insurance coverage rates for 2014. These reports should give the best picture of the effects of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) major coverage expansions on the uninsured rate.…
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This Grandparent’s Day, Let’s Build a Brighter Future for Our Grandchildren
By Laura Brennaman, Florida CHAIN As a grandmother, nothing is more important to me than the health and well-being of my grandchildren. Health care coverage is essential to providing my grandchildren and all grandkids with the opportunity to reach their full potential. Health coverage not only provides our grandchildren with the care they need to…
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Urban Study Finds Uninsured Low Income Parents Are Key Beneficiaries of Medicaid Expansion
The latest round of data from the Urban Institute’s Health Reform Monitoring Survey (HRMS) measuring uninsured rates pre- and post-implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is out today and finds that parents have seen sharp declines in uninsured rates – from 17.3% in June 2013 to 10.4% in March 2015. This amounts to a…
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CMS Gives States Permanent Option to Use SNAP Data to Enroll and Renew Medicaid and CHIP
It started out as a targeted enrollment strategy – a fast and efficient way to get eligible people enrolled in the ACA’s expanded coverage options by using SNAP enrollment to identify low-income beneficiaries who were income eligible but not enrolled in Medicaid. After all, gross income eligibility for SNAP (aka food stamps) at 130% FPL…
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CHIP Change is Good News for Pennsylvania Children
By Michael Race, Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children Pennsylvania is making some improvements to its Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to make sure all kids enrolled in CHIP receive health care coverage that meets the minimum standards of the federal Affordable Care Act. Gov. Tom Wolf announced this week that, starting Dec. 1, all CHIP plans…
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Coverage for Immigrant Children and Families in California
Now Playing: Coverage for more than 400,000 children and youth Coming Soon: Coverage for more than 800,000 additional immigrant children, youth and parents This week, Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families and The Children’s Partnership released a new paper outlining how to get ready for big coverage opportunities in California. It highlights opportunities that will…
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Proposed Legislation Will Fix Medicaid Glitch for Former Foster Youth Who Move
I’ve written before about an unintended flaw in the Affordable Care Act that relates to Medicaid eligibility for former foster youth. The simple use of the words “the” versus “a” state has led to an interpretation of the law that allows states to deny coverage to young adults who were in foster care in a…
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Time to Celebrate! California Will Provide Health Coverage for All Kids, Regardless of Immigration Status
It is now time to uncork the champagne and celebrate! California’s Governor, Jerry Brown, signed a budget that includes health coverage for all low-income children, regardless of immigration status today. Under the signed budget, California will provide coverage for allow-income children regardless of immigration status. Coverage would begin in May 2016. The expansion is projected…
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California Moving Toward Health Coverage for All Kids, Regardless of Immigration Status
While I was in Oakland, California meeting with child health advocates on Tuesday, we received great news about a big step forward for kids (no, it was not that the Oakland Warriors won the NBA playoffs!). State legislative leaders and the Governor announced a budget agreement that included a commitment to expand health coverage to…
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California Moves to Cover All Children Regardless of Immigration Status Lessons From County Programs Paved the Way
By Gene Lewit On Tuesday in California, legislative leaders and the Governor agreed on a 2015-16 budget bill that would allow all otherwise-eligible children to enroll in the state’s Medicaid program, regardless of their immigration status. The agreement includes $40 million in funding for children’s coverage that would begin in May 2016. An estimated 170,000…
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Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015: Summary of Key Provisions Impacting Children
On April 16th, President Obama signed into law the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA), now Public Law 114-10, which provides new federal funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) through 2017 and permanently adjusts the flawed Medicare physician payment formula to prevent cuts in reimbursements to Medicare providers. It also extends…
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New Study Confirms Importance of Medicaid/CHIP Maintenance of Effort
During the debate on CHIP, conversations focused a lot on what would happen to kids’ coverage without the program. Now that Congress has extended CHIP funding through 2017, we look to the future. In the near-term, if no new funds are available after 2017, states may eliminate their separate CHIP programs. Further, many Say Ahhh!…
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Medicaid/CHIP Participation Rate Was 88.3 percent Among Children in 2013
By Genevieve M. Kenney and Nathaniel Anderson, Urban Institute We keep a close eye on fluctuations in the participation rate in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) because it is so critical to efforts to bring down the uninsured rate for children. Our latest data found that children’s participation in Medicaid/CHIP was 88.3…
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More Eligible but Unenrolled Kids are Being Connected to Medicaid & CHIP Coverage
CMS just released 2013 participation rates for children in Medicaid and CHIP, as calculated by experts at the Urban Institute. We keep a close eye on this data as it provides important insights into how well states are reaching eligible but uninsured children (which are the majority of uninsured children). As Say Ahhh! readers well…
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Rules Propose Permanent 90% Federal Match for Medicaid Eligibility Systems: Tell HHS You Like It!
A year or so ago in a room of Ohio legislative staffers, I asked everyone under 30 to raise their hands. It was about 90% of the audience. I then said, “Your state’s Medicaid eligibility system is older than you.” And it was true, not only for Ohio, but also for many states across the…
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Many Working Parents and Families in Florida Would Benefit from Closing the Coverage Gap
The U.S. has made significant progress in decreasing rates of uninsurance for parents and adults. However, many low-income families in Florida still struggle to obtain health coverage. In 2013 (prior to the Affordable Care Act’s major coverage provisions), there were over 3.9 million people living without health insurance coverage in Florida, accounting for 8.5 percent (1…
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Access to Care in CHIP & Medicaid Strong (CCF’s C-SPAN Debut!)
This week started out on a high, since I had the pleasure of heading over to C-SPAN’s Washington Journal to talk about my favorite topic of late: the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). (Shout out to my father, Larry Wright, who is arguably CSPAN’s #1 fan in Arkansas and could have only been more excited…
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ACA Turns Five: Reflecting on the Past and Looking Forward to the Future
By Sean Miskell Since the Affordable Care Act (ACA) became law five years ago today, health reform has unfolded in fits and starts amid political opposition and staggered implementation of its insurance market reforms and coverage expansions. But as a result of these occasionally frantic first years of implementation, children and families now have improved…