I had held out a little sliver of hope that the Trump Administration would not cross this line but today those hopes were extinguished when CMS Administrator Verma traveled to South Carolina to personally deliver the news to South Carolina Governor McMaster that his state would be the first in the nation to apply a […]
My father, a professor, used to always say the most interesting part of a paper can often be found in the footnotes. And a recent report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on administrative spending in Medicaid Section 1115 work requirement waivers support his claim. I recently read every word of the report, including all […]
The Tennessee Medicaid agency has posted a proposal to convert a portion of its federal funding to a “block grant.” The proposal, which responds to a directive from the Tennessee State Legislature, takes the form of an amendment to the state’s current section 1115 demonstration, which expires at the end of June 2021. The state […]
Last November, Utah voters passed an initiative calling for Medicaid expansion. Since then, Utah policymakers have been fighting a convoluted battle against covering low-income adults that has been chronicled by my colleagues Joan Alker, Adam Searing, and Kelly Whitener. The latest chapter in this saga is Utah’s “per capita cap” waiver, which is now before […]
Like many others, I was out of Washington for the second half of August. That tends to be the period of time when Administrations publicly announce decisions they want buried. And when it comes to Medicaid waivers, the timing may not have been intentional, but what happened in August is worth unearthing to examine more […]
What a mess. After repealing the ballot initiative passed by a majority of Utah voters that offered more affordable health coverage through a simple Medicaid expansion, Utah’s Governor and legislature substituted a law that creates a very complex Medicaid plan aimed at only people with incomes under about $12,000 a year. As it turns out, […]
