Eligibility & Enrollment
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Health Reform Rule Will Change Not Stop Income Verification
By Judy Solomon, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities In the last several days, some media coverage has seriously misinterpreted changes to how health reform’s new health insurance marketplaces (formerly called exchanges) will verify that applicants are eligible for federal health insurance subsidies. The changes to verification procedures, which the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)…
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Outreach Grant Will Help California Advocates Connect More Kids to Coverage
By Suzie Shupe and Edgar Aguilar, California Coverage and Health Initiatives California is the most populous state in the union and home to more than 13 percent of the nation’s uninsured children. Since coverage is essential for making sure children reach their full potential, California Coverage & Health Initiatives (CCHI) is honored to receive a…
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All Eyes on States – Time to Say Goodbye to CHIP Waiting Periods
As states are rushing to get their enrollment and eligibility systems in top form going into 2014, HHS just handed them one more critical decision to make: getting rid of outdated CHIP waiting periods. Say Ahhh! readers know that eliminating CHIP waiting periods— or the period of time that a child must remain uninsured before…
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Our Initial Take on Today’s Final Medicaid, CHIP, Exchange Rule
I’m holding the fort down at CCF while most of my colleagues get a few well-deserved days off. But unfortunately that means I drew the short straw for a first look at final Medicaid and Exchange regulations released on this hot, humid day wedged between a national holiday and what could be a long weekend.…
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Connecting Kids to Coverage Grants Announced
The third round of Connecting Kids to Coverage Outreach and Enrollment Grants were announced today. A total of $32 million was awarded in 22 states to 41 grantees, which include state and local governments, tribal organizations, community groups, schools, health care providers and other organizations. Grants were targeted in the states with the largest numbers of…
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Translating MAGI to Current Monthly Income Will Be Particularly Important for Kids in Medicaid and CHIP
It’s helpful for all Medicaid and CHIP stakeholders to generally understand that starting in January 2014 there will be new ways to count income and household size to determine Medicaid eligibility based on the new ACA rules. While not everyone needs to dive into these policy weeds, there are a number of reasons it’s important…
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Making Medicaid Work for Child Welfare Populations: Insights from States
By Kamala Allen, Director of Child Health Quality at the Center for Health Care Strategies We know that many children in child welfare have significant health care needs – often exacerbated by trauma, abuse, and neglect – and that most are eligible for coverage through Medicaid. We also know that it can be difficult to…
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Covering Parents is Good for Kids: How Accepting the Medicaid Option Can Help Pennsylvania Kids
(Editor’s Note: This blog is based on testimony presented by the author before the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Human Services Committee today.) By George Hoover, Pennsylvania Partnership for Kids Pennsylvania has a strong history of providing health care coverage to children – a history that was built through bipartisan efforts and a commitment to “Cover…
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Tech Tuesday: Medicaid Assessment or Determination by the Federal Marketplace
People who are eligible for Medicaid or CHIP in their state do not qualify for premium tax credits (or cost-sharing reductions) to help pay for a qualified health plan (QHP) in either a state-based exchange or the federally-facilitated marketplace (FFM). When someone applies for coverage through the FFM in the 34 states that are not…
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Implementing the ACA’s Extension of Medicaid to Former Foster Youth
It should be one of the health reform law’s most straightforward provisions: young adults who were in foster care and enrolled in Medicaid at the age of 18 (or older in states that extend foster care beyond the 18th birthday) get Medicaid coverage until they turn 26. But a wrinkle developed when HHS released proposed…
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Foster Care Provision State Partner Webinar
The May 2013 State Partner call/ webinar focused on the foster care provision of the ACA. Download the video here.
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Accepting Medicaid Funding is a Good Deal for States and Would Reduce Financial Burden for Uninsured Residents
By Tara Mancini We all know why the Medicaid expansion is a good deal for states, but it also benefits state residents who stand to become insured. In addition to the obvious benefit of providing access to affordable healthcare, it also has the potential to bring more economic stability to the newly insured. A recently…
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How Many Calls Does it Take to Sign Up for CHIP in Pennsylvania?
Eighty-six phone calls! That’s how many calls it took new parents Ari Friedman and Tara Mendola of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to finally obtain Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) coverage for their son. (And we all know new parents have nothing better to do than sit on hold!) Ari and Tara are both graduate students who were…
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Colorado Puts an End to CHIP Waiting Period – Let’s End the Wait for All Kids
Colorado children and families can breathe a little easier now that the Governor signed into law a commonsense bill that ends CHIP waiting periods. Colorado had required families to wait for three months from the end of their employer-sponsored insurance before enrolling their children in Child Health Plan Plus, Colorado’s CHIP program. Cody Belzley of the…
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Covering Parents is Good for Kids: How Expanding Medicaid Helps Low-Income Adults
(Editor’s Note: Welcome to the Center for Children and Families’ “Covering Parents is Good for Kids” blog series. 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; covering parents can help depressed mothers get treatment and improve…
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New Study Finds Failure to Expand Medicaid Could be Costly for Employers
A new study provides states with yet another reason to accept federal funding to extend Medicaid coverage to more uninsured people. A study by Jackson Hewitt Tax Service found that states that fail to accept the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid option will leave employers exposed to higher shared responsibility payments than employers in states that…
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Replacing ARKids First with Exchange Coverage Would Put Children – and Arkansas’s Success – at Risk
Like most health policy folks, I have been watching developments in my home state of Arkansas with much interest. Recent media reports have discussed interest among state leaders to use Medicaid to purchase plans on the exchange, also known as the marketplace that will make private insurance available to many uninsured Arkansans starting next year…
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Florida Medicaid Expansion – Not Dead Yet
Yesterday, the Florida Senate Select Committee on PPACA voted against a Florida Medicaid expansion on a straight party line vote – a surprise to some since a few Republicans on the committee, including Chairman Negron, had indicated that they were interested in moving forward. Many media sources are reporting that the Medicaid expansion is all…
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New Resources from CCF Shows Medicaid Provides Access to Needed Care
A perennial question that is raised about Medicaid is whether beneficiaries can actually find doctors to access the care they need. A new factsheet from CCF on access to health care summarizes available research which shows that in general the answer is a resounding yes. Studies have consistently found that access to primary and preventive…
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Eliminate CHIP Waiting Period – No Child Should Wait for Coverage
As we’ve highlighted several times, the recently proposed ACA rules on Medicaid, CHIP, and the Exchanges kept the option for states to continue requiring uninsured children to wait up to 90 days before enrolling in CHIP. It bears repeating: Waiting periods, still in use in 38 states, make no sense in a post-ACA universe where…