Waivers
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Arkansas’s Health Care Reform Forum: Medicaid Expansion and the Private Option
How has the Affordable Care Act and health care reform directly affected consumers and access to health care? How does Medicaid expansion relate to the broader health reform effort? How has Arkansas’s Private Option affected the state’s health care system? What makes a premium assistance model appealing for health care Arkansas and other states? These…
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Many working parents in Georgia would benefit from closing health coverage gap
by Cindy Zeldin, Executive Director, Georgians for a Healthy Future It’s often assumed that if you have a job, you have health insurance. That’s not the case for many working families in Georgia, though, because our state leaders haven’t accepted the federal funding set aside for us to extend cost-effective Medicaid coverage to more uninsured…
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Many Working Parents and Families in Georgia Would Benefit from Extending Medicaid Coverage
Georgia is one of the 19 states that have elected not to accept federal funding under the ACA to extend Medicaid coverage to parents and other low-income adults and is not actively considering plans for coverage. Consequently, parents in Georgia are not eligible for Medicaid or premium tax credits if their incomes exceed 39 percent of…
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Michigan’s Medicaid Waiver Amendment: A Costly & Misguided Solution in Search of a Problem
Today, on September 1st, the state of Michigan submitted an amendment to its Section 1115 Medicaid expansion waiver to comply with a deadline established by state law (PA 107 passed in 2013). The same state statute specifies that if the changes described in the amendment are not approved by December 31, 2015 that the expansion…
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Early Returns From Medicaid Expansion: Studies Find New Enrollees Are Accessing Needed Care
One of the key arguments that opponents of expanding Medicaid make is that there is no point in doing so because access is so poor in Medicaid that it won’t actually help the intended beneficiaries get the care they need. There is certainly room for improvement in access to care for Medicaid beneficiaries, and it…
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Unintended Consequences of the ACA: Retraction of Medicaid Eligibility for Parents in Connecticut
By Sharon Langer, Connecticut Voices for Children Research has consistently demonstrated that insuring parents is good for their health and their children’s. Children of parents insured through Medicaid are more likely to be covered and receive regular check-ups. In 2007, when Connecticut aligned its Medicaid income limit for parents and children at 185% FPL it…
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Many Working Parents and Families in North Carolina Would Benefit from Medicaid Coverage
North Carolina is one of the 22 states that has elected not to accept federal funding under the ACA to extend Medicaid coverage to parents and other low-income adults. Consequently, parents in North Carolina are not eligible for Medicaid or premium tax credits if their incomes exceed 45 percent of the poverty line ($8,840 annually,…
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Groups: CMS Should Reject Iowa’s Request to Continue Waiving Non-emergency Medical Transportation Benefits
This week, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, CCF and 10 other organizations submitted a comment letter regarding Iowa’s proposed section 1115 amendment to extend their waiver of the non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) benefit. While we continue to support Iowa’s decision to provide coverage to newly eligible low-income adults, we hope that CMS will…
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Video Highlights of Joan Alker’s Testimony Before Congressional Committee on Medicaid Waivers
As loyal Say Ahhh! readers know, Joan Alker has been a devout Medicaid Section 1115 “waiver watcher” for many, many years. She was happy to share her knowledge on the topic with the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health this week. We’ll have more to say about the issues covered by the hearing in…
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King, Access to Care, Alternative Plans – States Running Out of Excuses for Failing to Act on Medicaid
The message from the Supreme Court’s King v. Burwell case yesterday was pretty simple for people interested in following the Medicaid expansion debate in the states. Now that it’s clear access to affordable coverage is here to stay for people above the poverty line, states that haven’t taken the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid funding to extend…
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Florida Governor Scott Drops LIP Lawsuit, Declares Victory???
Acting right on the heels of the historic decision affirming the Affordable Care Act in King v. Burwell, Florida Governor Rick Scott withdrew his lawsuit against the Obama Administration on the state’s Low Income Pool. That was a wise decision in my view, as the suit had no merit (in my purely non-legal opinion). But…
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Testimony Before House Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Health Regarding Medicaid Demonstration Waivers
CCF Executive Director Joan Alker’s testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health hearing entitled “Examining the Administration’s Approval of Medicaid Demonstration Projects.” A video of her testimony is also available here.
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Florida House Votes Down Senate Medicaid Plan Leaving Florida with Large Coverage Gap
Today the Florida House voted down the Senate’s Florida Health Insurance Affordability Exchange plan that would have accepted federal Medicaid funds. The House’s rejection of the Senate plan follows a strong bipartisan vote in that chamber in favor earlier this week of 33-3. Both chambers have large Republican majorities. An estimated 669,000 Floridians will remain…
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Broad Wisconsin Budget Coalition Backs BadgerCare Expansion
By Jon Peacock, Wisconsin Coalition on Children and Families Sooner or later, Wisconsin is going to expand its Medicaid coverage, known as “BadgerCare,” to include all adults up to 138% of the federal poverty level (FPL). The strong public support for expanding coverage and the substantial financial benefits of accepting increased federal funding will eventually…
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Florida’s LIP Medicaid Waiver Amendment Now Open for Public Comment – National Implications
It’s hard to miss the ongoing debate about Florida’s Medicaid expansion and the related subject of how the federal government plans to respond to the state’s request for continued funding of its Low Income Pool. But it would be easy to miss that the federal government just opened that amendment up for public comment. As…
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Obama Administration Announces Cuts to Florida’s Special LIP Dollars
In the latest development in Florida’s Medicaid saga, yesterday CMS gave a preliminary response to Florida’s Low Income Pool request. Adhering to the principles outlined in an April 14 letter, CMS indicated that it plans to cut LIP substantially by 55% for the state’s next fiscal year and 75% in the following year – the…
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For Mother’s Day: Expand Medicaid and Women’s Access to Health Coverage
By Jesse Cross-Call, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Health insurance for women improves both their own health and that of their children, research shows. Yet, low-income women living in the 21 states that have not expanded Medicaid as part of health reform face glaring gaps in access to health coverage.In these states, 1.8 million uninsured…
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The ACA’s State Innovation Waivers: A Need for Transparency and a Role for Stakeholders
By Joan Alker and Sabrina Corlette Discussion of new “superwaiver” authority is a hot topic in many state and health policy circles. Recently at a conference of state health officials sponsored by the National Governors Association, several states mentioned their interest in the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) so-called Section 1332 waivers. This provision of the…
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“Impossible to Argue Against” – The Significant Change in State Debates over Accepting Medicaid Funding
Last week I noted how two very unusual editorials at major newspapers in Tennessee and Florida indicated what I called a “debate turning point” on the Medicaid expansion funding issue. Since then there is more evidence of this turning point in both of these states – which haven’t yet accepted the federal money for expanded…
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Report: Many Working Parents & Families Would Benefit if Florida Said Yes to Medicaid
I’m happy to be visiting Tallahassee today during “Children’s Week” just as Florida’s lawmakers are facing one of the most consequential decisions they could make for Florida’s children and working families. To help lawmakers understand what’s at stake, today we released a report with the Kids Well coalition explaining how expanding Medicaid would help uninsured…