Eligibility & Enrollment
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Half of the Uninsured are Eligible for ACA Coverage
by Jordan Messner, Graduate Research Intern The Kaiser Family Foundation published a report on October 13 examining the uninsured population in the United States and their options for coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The report found that although 32.3 million nonelderly people were uninsured at the beginning of 2015, 49% of these individuals (15.7…
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More People Have Health Coverage in Every State Thanks to ACA; Yet Some of the Poorest are Being Left Behind
by Suzanne Wikle, Projector Director, Advancing Strategies for Aligning Programs, CLASP When President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act (ACA) into law, advocates hailed it as the most important health legislation since the creation of Medicaid and Medicare in 1965 — and one of the most important anti-poverty laws in decades as well. The monumental…
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Arkansas’s Health Care Reform Forum: Medicaid Expansion and the Private Option
How has the Affordable Care Act and health care reform directly affected consumers and access to health care? How does Medicaid expansion relate to the broader health reform effort? How has Arkansas’s Private Option affected the state’s health care system? What makes a premium assistance model appealing for health care Arkansas and other states? These…
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Many working parents in Georgia would benefit from closing health coverage gap
by Cindy Zeldin, Executive Director, Georgians for a Healthy Future It’s often assumed that if you have a job, you have health insurance. That’s not the case for many working families in Georgia, though, because our state leaders haven’t accepted the federal funding set aside for us to extend cost-effective Medicaid coverage to more uninsured…
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New Health Insurance Data Shows More Kentucky Kids are Covered
By Terry Brooks, Kentucky Youth Advocates New health insurance data recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau revealed that health insurance coverage rates for both children and adults increased in Kentucky from 2013 to 2014. The one-year estimates from the American Community Survey revealed that 95.7 percent of Kentucky children under 18 had health insurance in…
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Child and Parent Health Issues Can Lead to Chronic Absenteeism & Impact Student Success
Editor’s Note: Yesterday we published the first half of our interview with Hedy Chang of Attendance Works. She explained how child and parent health issues can become a barrier to school attendance and future success. Today we conclude the interview. Q: Many of the health barriers to attendance that your report mentions are preventable and/or treatable…
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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!…