Financing
The Senate Majority Leader has announced his intention to take up the Graham-Cassidy proposal next week. The proposal has lots of moving parts. None of them are kid- or family-friendly. And one of them—the cap on federal Medicaid payments to states—is not only very unfriendly, but it will last forever. The cap first emerged in […]
There’s much ado in the news today about what the “Graham-Cassidy” plan does with respect to CHIP. Two impacts of Graham-Cassidy on CHIP are very clear. First, by cutting Medicaid, Graham-Cassidy would undermine the foundation upon which CHIP sits. Medicaid covers four times as many children as CHIP, so cutting Medicaid by imposing a per-capita […]
Yesterday I blogged about the urgent need for Congress to take bipartisan action to extend CHIP funding before it expires on September 30. The Senate only has 10 legislative days left before the deadline, and the House only has five! Yikes! Almost nine million children have their coverage provided for or funded at least in part […]
Last month, we celebrated the 20th anniversary of CHIP – an acronym that needs no explanation to readers of Say Ahhh! Over the years, CHIP’s high profile and strong bipartisan popularity has played a significant role in advancing children’s coverage, along with earlier expansions of Medicaid to the most vulnerable children. CHIP spurred states to […]
Consider three different drugs that are used by children. Amoxicillin is an inexpensive antibiotic that might be prescribed when a child has an ear infection. Typically, this generic drug would cost between $5 and $15 for a one-time prescription. Antibiotics are the most common type of drug used by children under age 6. EpiPen is […]
We know that access to health care is correlated with many demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. The Affordable Care Act, through the Medicaid expansion and the marketplace, extended coverage to uninsured populations with the hope of reducing disparities in access to health care. After the first couple of years of the insurance expansions, research shows that […]
