Eligibility & Enrollment
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What Would Happen if CHIP Went Away? Our Research Suggests Kids (for now) Would be Significantly Worse Off
While the eyes of the world have been intently focused on the success or failure of the Affordable Care Act, an important question has recently surfaced in the policy debate by the Medicaid and CHIP Payment Access Commission (MACPAC, — the group legislatively tasked with making recommendations on Medicaid and CHIP to policymakers): Should the Children’s…
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Without CHIP, Low-Income Arizona Families Face High Costs for Children’s Health Coverage
Before the Affordable Care Act (ACA) became law, Arizona began the process of dismantling its CHIP program when it froze enrollment in KidsCare in January 2010. Enrollment was temporarily reinstated in May 2012, extending coverage to 47,000 children at the peak of KidsCare II. Thanks to the ACA’s alignment of children’s Medicaid eligibility across all…
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CCF-NASHP Report Details CHIP Benefits and Cost Sharing and Considers ACA Context
By Joe Touschner (CCF) and Joanne Jee (NASHP) We know CHIP gives millions of children access to affordable health coverage, but what exactly does it cover? Because of the flexibility built into the CHIP law, the answer varies by state—states can choose both the benefits and the cost sharing in their separate CHIP programs, as…
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Experience of Ohio Family Depicts Plight of the “Loopers”
Remember the Medicaid loopers? These were the folks who applied for coverage through the health insurance Marketplace only to be told they – or a family member – were not eligible because the Marketplace assessed them as eligible for Medicaid coverage. In some cases, parents did not learn that their child was not on their Marketplace…
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ACA Promises Streamlined Medicaid/CHIP Renewals, After the First Round
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) envisions highly automated renewals for Medicaid and CHIP. With new eligibility systems capable of retrieving personal eligibility-related data from trusted sources, such as the state’s wage database, agencies should be able to renew coverage for most enrollees without requiring them to complete forms or submit paperwork. But first, state agencies…
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Are States Using Their Extra Medicaid Federal Match to Boost Eligibility Capacity?
Recent media attention highlighting significant backlogs of Medicaid applications waiting for eligibility determinations at the state level reminded me of what I reported in this blog last April: as of October 1, 2013, states can receive a 75% federal match for ongoing operational costs associated with their new eligibility systems, including personnel. So I’m wondering…
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For DACA Grantees, Health Insurance is (Only) a Dream
By Dinah Wiley [Update: In August 2022, the Biden administration codified the DACA program in regulation. The regulation did not change health insurance for DACA grantees. For current information on DACA, visit the National Immigration Law Center.] We receive a lot of questions about the health insurance eligibility of non-citizens with a special Deferred Action status…
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Medicaid Provides Needed Access to Care
Medicaid and CHIP significantly improve access to needed health care for the populations they cover. As of June 2011, Medicaid covered 25 million adults and over 32 million children (along with its smaller companion program, CHIP). The fact sheet indicates Medicaid enrollees have comparable access to care as those with private coverage and much better access and fewer…
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Study Examines Access to Primary Care for New Patients
By Martha Heberlein Much of the focus over the last six months has been on connecting folks to coverage. But once that’s been accomplished, the next question that often (rightfully) pops into people’s minds is whether or not these newly-insured consumers will be able to access care. Scores of studies over the years have consistently…
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Health Affairs Study Finds Adults in Income Range of ACA Medicaid Expansion are Healthier than Pre-ACA Enrollees
By Tara Mancini New research that appears in a Health Affairs “Web First” article finds that adults (ages 19-64) who are newly eligible for Medicaid under the ACA, and those who were previously eligible but not enrolled had similar or better health than pre-ACA enrollees. This is true for those in the income range that qualifies…
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CMS Reports Medicaid Enrollment Gains of 3 Million (and counting)
After hearing that more than 7 million people were enrolled through the marketplaces before the close of open enrollment on March 31st, we’ve been anxiously awaiting the release of companion Medicaid and CHIP enrollment data. The wait is over! CMS has released monthly eligibility and enrollment activity data since October 2013, but the hot-off-the-press February…
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Two States On the Path to the Basic Health Program
Both Minnesota and New York are on the path to setting up a Basic Health Program (BHP) that will provide more affordable coverage for low-income families than they may find on the marketplace. Minnesota passed BHP legislation that was signed into law in May 2013. In New York, BHP was included in the Governor’s budget…
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Two Takeaways from New Hampshire and Michigan Medicaid Expansions
By Jesse Cross-Call, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities New Hampshire’s legislature has passed and Governor Maggie Hassan has signed into law legislation that will expand Medicaid as part of health reform effective July 1. This means that combined with Michigan, where expansion takes effect tomorrow, an additional 600,000 uninsured people will be newly eligible for…
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New Report Finds When Parents Were Cut from MaineCare, Kids Lost Coverage Too
It is a well-documented fact that connecting parents with coverage has a positive impact on children and now Maine Children’s Alliance has released a report that shows how disconnecting parents from coverage negatively impacts children. About 28,500 working Maine parents lost coverage after the state scaled back coverage in 2012. Prior to 2012, Maine offered…
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The Tipping Point: New Hampshire Becomes 26th State to Expand Medicaid!
New Hampshire Governor Hassan signed bipartisan Medicaid expansion legislation into law yesterday, and my home state becomes the twenty-sixth (plus D.C.) to expand health coverage to the state’s lowest income adults. Although New Hampshire is moving toward an Arkansas-like private option, rather than delay implementation, in May the state will begin providing premium assistance to…
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Covering Former Foster Youth Should Be Easy But …
Sometimes, it’s the simplest provision of a law that works the best – like the Affordable Care Act (ACA) provision that allows young adults to stay on their parents’ health plan until 26. But youth leaving the foster care system as they transition to adulthood don’t have families to fall back on, so the ACA…
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NASHP Releases New Resource on Medicaid Benefits for Children
By Joe Touschner Along with ICHIA and SLMB, one of the more inscrutable acronyms in health policy is EPSDT. Even those who know it stands for Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment may not know exactly who it is for and what it entails. Worse, although it is a federal policy that applies in…
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Navigating the Application Process for Families that Include Immigrants
Immigrant resources from a webinar for assisters, February 21, 2014, sponsored by HHS in partnership with CCF, the National Immigration Law Center, and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities:
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Florida is Leaving 764,000 Uncovered and Giving Up $7 Million Per Day
Editor’s Note: To listen to the webinar hosted by the Florida Philanthropic Network on this topic, visit this site. I just returned from a briefing in Tallahassee sponsored by the Florida Philanthropic Network on Medicaid where I released a new factsheet. I presented some key findings – noted below – and a terrific panel…
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Florida’s Medicaid Choice: Options and Implications
In 2013, the Florida Legislature chose not to expand Medicaid to those with incomes below 133% of the federal poverty line. Consequently, Florida today is among 24 states that are not receiving federal Medicaid expansion funding. As the 2014 Legislative session nears, the question of whether to accept the federal Medicaid dollars likely will be debated again. This…