Medicaid
has transformed health care for low-income families and individuals, especially children, pregnant mothers, parents and children with disabilities and special health care needs.
Looming Government Shutdown Could Undermine Federal Oversight of Medicaid Unwinding
Sadly, we’ve been here before and it’s highly likely that we’ll be here again. Where? Staring a government shutdown in the face and wondering what it means for federal health care programs like Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and the tens of millions of low-income people who rely on them. Let’s go […]
CBO Confirms House Bill Prohibiting Use of “QALYs” Would Undermine State Negotiation of Medicaid Supplemental Rebates
I previously raised significant concerns about a House health bill that would expand an existing Medicare prohibition on the use of Quality-Adjusted Life Years (QALYs) to other federal programs including Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). I warned that the bill was overbroad in its prohibition of the use of QALYs and could […]
CMS Takes Swift Action to Require States to Address Medicaid Auto-Renewal Errors and Reinstate Children’s Coverage
We have long feared that large numbers of children were losing Medicaid during the unwinding, essentially by mistake, and the ex parte debacle underscores the fact that this is indeed happening. As we’ve previously explained, the ex parte issue came to light in August after a CMS investigation found several states were doing automatic renewals […]
Midwives Offer State Medicaid Agencies Another Tool to Address the Maternal Health Crisis
Doulas have been a popular topic in the maternal health space as one means of improving birthing outcomes, especially for Black women and other communities of color that have been historically marginalized from the traditional health system. It can be confusing to differentiate between the different support persons and clinicians that may assist expecting or […]
House Republican Budget Resolution Includes Draconian Medicaid Cuts
Yesterday, on September 19, 2023, House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington issued a House budget resolution for fiscal year 2024 that would cut federal Medicaid spending by $1.9 trillion — or nearly 28 percent — over the next 10 years. While the budget resolution includes very little detail, it offers some indication about how the […]
Update on Medicaid Unwinding and Marketplace Enrollment
I previously reported that according to data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), of the 715,000 Medicaid beneficiaries who lost Medicaid coverage in April due to unwinding of the Medicaid continuous coverage protection, a total of about 54,000 people or 7.5 percent — who were either previously enrolled in Medicaid in March […]