Eligibility & Enrollment
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Louisiana Shows States can Streamline Medicaid and CHIP Enrollment AND Achieve Low Eligibility Error Rates
By Stan Dorn, Urban Institute Sometimes people fear that streamlining Medicaid and CHIP enrollment and retention may increase error rates. Louisiana has once again shown, in the words of the Gershwin classic, that “It Ain’t Necessarily So.” On November 21, 2012, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released the state’s 2011 Payment Error Rate…
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HHS Sheds Light on How Family Income Will be Calculated Under New MAGI Method for Medicaid and CHIP
By Jocelyn Guyer Over the holidays, while we were all relaxing with family and friends (or sneaking off for fiscal cliff updates), HHS issued an important “Dear State Medicaid Director” letter that will help to determine the income levels for children’s coverage under Medicaid and CHIP for at least the next six years. Not quite…
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Participation Among Children and Parents -Urban Institute Presentation
Participation Among Children and Parents -Urban Institute Presentation
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New Report Adds Insights to Debate on Whether Florida Should Exercise Medicaid Option
Governor Rick Scott of Florida, famously a staunch opponent of the Affordable Care Act, recently signaled a new willingness to join the conversation on how to put the law to work for Florida families. Today, we are releasing a report that will help give those engaged in the conversation some sound data and research to help guide…
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Florida’s Medicaid Choice: Understanding Implications of Supreme Court Ruling on Affordable Health Care Act
Georgetown University Health Policy Institute researchers estimate that 800,000 to 1.3 million uninsured Floridians would gain health coverage with no net cost to the state if Florida chose to exercise the option to extend Medicaid coverage to residents with incomes at or below 133% FPL as provided under the Affordable Care Act. Moreover, the researchers estimate…
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Florida’s Medicaid Choice Slides
View the report here. View the press release here. Georgetown University Health Policy Institute researchers estimate that 800,000 to 1.3 million uninsured Floridians would gain health coverage with no net cost to the state if Florida chose to exercise the option to extend Medicaid coverage to residents with incomes at or below 133% FPL as provided…
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Countdown Clock Toward 2014 is Ticking (No More Timeouts)
The Affordable Care Act is the law of the land – even House Speaker John Boehner affirmed that point in an interview with Diane Sawyer on ABC Nightly News. The countdown clock on implementation is ticking and there are no more time outs left. States need to move full speed ahead to beat the clock…
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What Do the Election Results Mean for the Affordable Care Act?
Last night was a good night for health care reform and the millions of Americans who will benefit from it. The Affordable Care Act has faced years of mudslinging, attempts to defund it, a Supreme Court challenge and played a high profile role in this year’s election. The election results underscore the fact that the…
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Uninsured Children 2009-2011: Charting the Nation’s Progress
Georgetown University Center for Children and Families researchers analyzed health insurance data from the Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey to get a closer look at children’s coverage trends. The authors found that the nation continues to make steady progress covering children, despite no reduction in the number of children living in poverty. A strong commitment to…
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Covering Parents is Good for Kids: Treating Depressed Mothers Can Help Children’s Development
Editor’s Note: Welcome to the fourth in a series of blogs on how covering parents helps children. Previous blogs on this topic have pointed out that extending Medicaid coverage to parents will provide a good value to states; maternal, infant and early childhood home visiting programs help prevent child maltreatment; and the single best way…
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Pregnant Women’s Medicaid Eligibility After 2014 – What’s the Minimum?
By Martha Heberlein A great degree of confusion surrounds this question and for good reason. You may be surprised to learn that come January 1, 2014, states must cover pregnant women in Medicaid at either 133% of the FPL OR the income standard in place as of December 19, 1989 (or as of July 1,…
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Uninsured Vets and Their Families Will Benefit from ACA
It was somewhat startling to learn that one in ten veterans are uninsured in the U.S. A report released earlier this summer by the Urban Institute’s Jennifer Haley and Genevieve Kenney (based on 2010 ACS data) found that 1.3 million of the nation’s 12.5 million nonelderly veterans did not have health insurance coverage and weren’t using…
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Federal Policy Makes a Difference in the Lives of Children and Families
As many readers know, this week the annual Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey numbers were released and the number of uninsured persons actually declined for the first time since 2007 – by 1.4 million. Since 2007 the number of uninsured adults has been growing – this year marks the first turnaround. This bit of good…
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More Kids Will Be Connected with Coverage Thanks to ACA
By Lincoln Nehring, Voices for Utah Children The Affordable Care Act reduces the number of eligible, but unenrolled kids in Medicaid and CHIP. Despite what you may have heard, this is a good thing. In a recent opinion piece in the Washington Times, Utah Governor Gary Herbert concedes that the ACA’s now-optional Medicaid expansion is…
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Another ACA Double Win for States and Families: Aligning Medicaid Coverage for Children of All Ages
Imagine you’re a parent with a pre-schooler and a 9 year-old child, earn $20,000 a year (105% FPL) and live in Georgia. Your younger child qualifies for Medicaid coverage but has to renew coverage every six months. Your older child qualifies for CHIP coverage with a monthly premium of $10 but only has to renew…
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Oral Health: It’s time to put the mouth back in the body
By Tara Mancini Yes, it is time to put the mouth back in the body. This paraphrases comments of Dr. Greg Nycz, a panelist at Kaiser Family Foundation’s screening earlier this summer of the PBS FRONTLINE documentary “Dollars and Dentists.” The film takes a hard look at the nation’s flawed dental care system, highlighting the…
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ACA To Keep Foster Care Youth Covered As They Transition to Adulthood
Young adults have historically been among the demographic groups with the highest rates of uninsurance. Many of these young adults are just joining the workforce and are unable to secure jobs with health benefits. In fact, nearly two out of five young adults ages 19 to 29 were without health insurance in 2011, with those…
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New Study Suggests that Expanding Medicaid Coverage Can Save Lives
By Tara Mancini A new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine adds to the relatively sparse body of knowledge regarding the impact of Medicaid on adults’ health. Researchers looked at three states, Maine, New York, and Arizona that made Medicaid available to childless adults between 2000 and 2005 and found a net decrease…
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How States Transition to New Medicaid Income Standards Could Impact Coverage for Kids and Families
By Martha Heberlein The ACA established a new Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI) standard that will be used to determine income eligibility in Medicaid, CHIP, and for premium tax credits. Under this new approach, states are required to convert their existing Medicaid and CHIP eligibility standards to account for the elimination of income disregards and…
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More Uninsured Likely Following the Supreme Court Decision
By Martha Heberlein I’m not quite sure what it says about me, but I was eagerly checking the Congressional Budget Office’s website yesterday at 2pm awaiting the updated score of the ACA following the Supreme Court ruling. While they’re only estimates, CBO is the official arbiter in DC and their assessments carry a whole lot…