The ink is barely dry on the law extending the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) funding through 2017, and I’m already hearing rumblings in the health policy community foreshadowing the program’s inevitable demise in 2017. I’ve heard phrases such as: “when CHIP ends”; “How do we best phase out CHIP?” and “We assume CHIP will not […]
It is now time to uncork the champagne and celebrate! California’s Governor, Jerry Brown, signed a budget that includes health coverage for all low-income children, regardless of immigration status today. Under the signed budget, California will provide coverage for allow-income children regardless of immigration status. Coverage would begin in May 2016. The expansion is projected […]
Last week our colleagues at the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured released a new report that children’s advocates, in particular, will find helpful, if not surprising. Helpful because it allows us to hear directly from parents about their children’s coverage experiences and what they value most. Kaiser’s research team conducted 14 focus groups […]
Hot off the press! Today we get our first look at annual insurance coverage data from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for 2014 and the results are in: fewer people were uninsured in 2014—the first year of full ACA implementation— than 2013. Children and adults in Medicaid expansion states had lower rates of uninsurance. […]
While I was in Oakland, California meeting with child health advocates on Tuesday, we received great news about a big step forward for kids (no, it was not that the Oakland Warriors won the NBA playoffs!). State legislative leaders and the Governor announced a budget agreement that included a commitment to expand health coverage to […]
By Gene Lewit On Tuesday in California, legislative leaders and the Governor agreed on a 2015-16 budget bill that would allow all otherwise-eligible children to enroll in the state’s Medicaid program, regardless of their immigration status. The agreement includes $40 million in funding for children’s coverage that would begin in May 2016. An estimated 170,000 […]
