Introduction All children deserve a healthy, secure foundation that enables them to lead long and productive lives. Although many factors influence a child’s trajectory, having access to health coverage is essential to a child’s healthy development and is correlated with better educational outcomes, higher paying jobs as an adult, and improved health over a lifetime. […]
Florida’s legislature is at it again, despite a recent strong Appeals Court ruling that Medicaid work requirements are not permitted by the statute. A bill to impose the harshest Medicaid work reporting requirements in the country on very poor parents – mostly women – is moving through Florida’s House of Representatives. An identical bill passed […]
For over two years, CMS Administrator Seema Verma has been on a crusade to impose work requirements on Medicaid beneficiaries. Her agency has approved ten state “demonstrations” of work requirements under section 1115 of the Social Security Act. When federal District Court Judge James Boasberg ruled on four separate occasions that the Secretary’s approvals of […]
In a decision which warmed my heart on a cold Valentine’s Day here in Washington, the federal Court of Appeals issued an unanimous opinion striking down the Arkansas work requirements waiver. In doing so, it upheld district court Judge Boasberg’s decision vacating the Arkansas’ Section 1115 waiver (including most famously Medicaid work requirements) because it […]
The Trump Administration’s fiscal year 2021 budget, released on February 10, again proposes to make a legislative change to the financing system for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) (described here). Entitled “Strengthen the CHIP Safety Net for States,” the proposal is identical to one included in the 2020 budget. It would eliminate the CHIP’s […]
Earlier this week, the Administration proposed a budget for FY2021 that it says would cut federal Medicaid spending by $920 billion, or 16 percent over the next ten years. (Current law baseline of $5.861 trillion, Table S-3, minus proposed spending of $4.941 trillion,Table S-4). A more realistic number would be at least $1 trillion over […]
