Preserving Coverage
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Federal Medicaid Cuts Would Be a Double Whammy for Vulnerable Young Children in Texas
Lately, we’ve been laser focused on potential threats ahead at the federal level. But as state legislative sessions start anew, it’s a good reminder that policymaking swirls ahead in state capitals as well. As our friends at Texans Care for Children described, last year’s Medicaid therapy cuts in Texas are already shutting out some young children…
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Complicated Cassidy-Collins Plan to Replace ACA Falls Short
With pressure building around repealing the ACA without a replacement plan, various “replacement” plans are starting to pop up – most recently this bill from Senators Cassidy and Collins. Sarah Lueck at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities posted a thoughtful analysis of the bill’s key provisions and Timothy Jost offers even more details…
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Senators’ ACA Replacement Won’t Likely Give States, Patients the Choices They Seek
By Sarah Lueck, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Senators Bill Cassidy and Susan Collins say their new proposal to replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA) would allow people who like the coverage they have to keep it. But now that we have more details about the proposal, it’s hard to see how that could…
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What Does President Trump’s Executive Order Mean for the Affordable Care Act?
As you may have heard, President Trump issued an executive order about the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on his inauguration day, but what’s been less clear is what exactly it means. Can the President repeal the ACA by executive order? The short answer is no. The ACA became law when it was passed by Congress…
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Arkansas Will be Particularly Hard Hit by Repeal of ACA
As regular readers of Say Ahhh! know, Arkansas has a unique approach to Medicaid expansion, known as “Arkansas Works” or the “private option,” which relies on the federal marketplace to provide coverage to Medicaid expansion enrollees instead of using Medicaid plans and providers to deliver coverage. As a result, the current plan by Congressional leaders…
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How Should We Be Thinking About CHIP in the New World Order?
Recent press accounts have noted that Republicans are thinking about using the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) as a bargaining tool to entice Democrats to vote for health legislation that replaces the Affordable Care Act (ACA). CHIP’s funding expires on September 30, 2017, which means that Congress must act soon to ensure that it continues…
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What Does Senate Passage of the Budget Mean for Children and Families?
Early this morning the Senate passed its fiscal year 2017 budget, with a vote of 51-48. The budget now heads to the House for consideration and a vote, which is expected tomorrow. But what does the budget say, and more importantly, what does it mean for children and families? The budget establishes funding levels for…
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Research Shows Fewer Jobs, Greater Financial Burden on Providers, States, & Local Governments if ACA Repealed
Taken together, three recent papers provide a sobering look at the extensive economic consequences for providers if the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is repealed. Just last week, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation published “The Impact on Health Care Providers of Partial ACA Repeal through Reconciliation,” an analysis from the Urban Institute. Their main finding? Repeal…
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The ACA Transformed Medicaid Enrollment Processes. Rolling Them Back Would Wreak Havoc.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare, is most widely known for strengthening consumer protections in private insurance and creating new pathways to affordable coverage through the Health Insurance Marketplaces and Medicaid. Less familiar is another aspect of the law—the ACA’s Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI) rules and systems—that sought to align eligibility among the…
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New Study Finds Severe Consequences For Children And Families If ACA Is Repealed: The Number Of Uninsured Children And Parents Would More Than Double
A new report by leading child health economists at the Urban Institute models a partial repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) through reconciliation and its impact on children and parents. The study found that the number of uninsured children would more than double under a partial repeal as compared to current law: an additional…
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Understanding Pending Proposals to Repeal the Affordable Care Act
Impact on Children and Families Top Five Ways ACA Repeal and Medicaid Financing Changes Would Harm our Youngest Children (2/27/17) Radically Restructuring Medicaid Would be Bad for Kids (2/24/17) Nation’s Success in Covering Children is in Peril (2/24/17) Complicated Cassidy-Collins Plan to Replace ACA Falls Short (1/25/17) What Does President Trump’s Executive Order Mean for the Affordable Care Act? (1/23/17)…
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Repealing the ACA’s Medicaid Expansion: What’s at Risk
In this new Kaiser Family Foundation report on the consequences for Medicaid expansion if the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is repealed, two numbers particularly stand out: 11 million adults have gained Medicaid coverage in 31 states and DC because of the Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. Through mid 2015, Medicaid expansion states have…
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Latino Child Health Coverage Rate Reaches Record High, But Threats Loom
Originally posted by NCLR Latino children with health coverage reached a record high 92.5 percent in 2015, the second year after key provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) took effect, according to our new joint report with the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families. These gains are part of overall coverage gains for…
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Top Five Threats to Child Welfare from ACA Repeal & Proposals to Alter Medicaid
By Olivia Golden, Executive Director, Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) Proposals by the Congress and President-elect to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA)—including the Medicaid expansion—to turn Medicaid into a block grant, and to cut resources, all can sound very abstract to social workers and policymakers coping with the day-to-day tragedies and crises of…
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New Mental Health Reforms are Built on the Premise of a Strong Health Care System
This week, Congress passed the 21st Century Cures Act, now headed to the President’s desk. The bill takes a number of steps to improve research and care quality in the healthcare system. Lesser known, the final agreement included mental health reforms that have been in the works for several years. These include helpful changes to…
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New Study Finds the Number of Uninsured Children Will More Than Double if the Affordable Care Act is Repealed
Less than two months ago we released our annual report looking at the nation’s progress in covering uninsured children. As regular readers of Say Ahhh! know this year we found widespread and unprecedented progress in reducing the number of uninsured children with the nation reaching a historic milestone of 95% of children covered in 2015…
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What Could Reconciliation Mean for Medicaid: Reviewing HR 3762
By Cindy Mann, Partner, Manatt Health President-elect Trump and leaders in Congress have proposed a major restructuring of the Medicaid program, but very significant changes to Medicaid coverage and financing could be adopted even before that debate begins as part of a reconciliation bill aimed at repealing various provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).…
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Arizona’s Coverage for Children and Families is Especially Threatened by ACA Repeal with No Replace
Congressional leaders have been clear that a repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is first up on their agenda in January. I blogged about this the other day, and as I was reflecting on these issues, I realized that children and families in Arizona are in particularly hot water if the ACA is repealed.…
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New CDC Report: Health Reform Strengthens Financial Stability of American Families
A report from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) finds a dramatic decline in the number of families and individuals who are struggling to pay medical bills, compared to what they faced before the Affordable Care Act was signed into law. The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) found…
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ACA Repeal without Replace – Can states continue to cover the Medicaid expansion population?
As the discussion about repealing the ACA continues, more and more questions arise. The latest question in my mind is this: If the Medicaid expansion in the Affordable Care Act is repealed, what options would states have to continue to cover this population if they wanted to do so? Before the Affordable Care Act, in…
