Medicaid
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Medicaid Block Grants: Questions State Leaders Should Ask
CMS Administrator Seema Verma, the top federal Medicaid official, has been encouraging states to be the first on the block to block grant their Medicaid programs. Some states are beginning to respond. Late last month Tennessee’s Governor Bill Lee signed legislation directing him to submit a proposal for a Medicaid block grant to the federal…
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What is CMS Administrator Verma’s Vision for “Reframing” Medicaid?
Last week, CQ Roll Call posted an interview with Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Seema Verma on the “Future of Medicaid Flexibility.” In it, she is quoted as follows: “As I look at the Medicaid program, we really want to reframe how we’ve been operating for the last 50 years. It’s really…
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CCF Submits Comments on Administration’s Damaging Proposal to Change How Poverty is Measured
We submitted public comments to the Trump Administration’s proposal to change how the Census Bureau’s Official Poverty Measure (OPM) is adjusted annually for inflation. As we have previously written, while this sounds like a highly technical change, it would likely result in fewer children eligible for Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) relative…
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Another Troubling Sign: Child Participation Rates in Medicaid and CHIP Dropped in 2017
Since the 2017 ACS data was released in September 2018, we have been concerned about the first increase in the number of uninsured children in a decade as highlighted in our annual uninsured children’s report. We became even more concerned as we watched the number of children enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP drop in 2018,…
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Why Are So Many Children Losing Medicaid/CHIP Coverage?
Along with the American Academy of Pediatrics, First Focus and the Children’s Defense Fund, Georgetown University CCF held a press tele-conference and released a report examining an alarming trend in children’s health coverage. The report shows that more than 800,000 fewer children had Medicaid/CHIP coverage at the end of 2018 compared to 2017. This trend…
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Fewer Florida Children Enrolled In Medicaid, CHIP In 2018, Report Says
WUSF Public Media By: Julio Ochoa The number of children covered by Medicaid declined in Florida and other states for the first time in more than a decade. With the unemployment rate at historic lows, that could mean that more children are being covered by their parents’ employers. But some experts say something else is…
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Red Tape And Immigration Fears Have Led To A Drop In Health Coverage For Texas Children
KUT 90.5 Austin Public Radio By: Ashley Lopez About 146,000 fewer children in Texas were enrolled in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program between the end of 2017 and the end of 2018, according to a study released Thursday by the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families. Nationwide more than 828,000 fewer children…
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Maternal Depression Costs Society Billions Each Year, New Model Finds
The most common pregnancy complication is also among the costliest, for moms, babies and society at large. A new cost model created by researchers at Mathematica finds that untreated mood and anxiety disorders among pregnant women and new moms cost about $14.2 billion for births in 2017, when following the mom and child pair for…
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Texas Women Needed Help From the Legislature. They Didn’t Get It.
Dallas Observer By: Stephen Young More than 25% of Texas women between ages 18 and 44 don’t have health insurance coverage. That’s one of the biggest takeaways from a new study into the effects of Medicaid expansion on maternal health from the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute. Texas’ uninsured rate for women of child-bearing age…
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Study Says Idaho is Among States with Highest Number of Uninsured Women
670 KBOI News By: Jay Howell Georgetown University says Idaho’s women of childbearing age are some of the most uninsured in the country. Joan Alker with the Georgetown Center for Children and Families says 16% of Idaho’s women between 18 and 44 fall into the so-called Medicaid Gap, and won’t really be helped when expansion…
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Medicaid Expansion Tied to Drops in Maternal, Infant Mortality Rates
Tulsa Public Radio By: Matt Trotter Oklahoma’s maternal and infant mortality rates are 34th and 43rd in the U.S. Researchers report Medicaid expansion could make a difference. Reviews found Medicaid expansion states saw infant mortality rates fall 50 percent more than states that did not expand Medicaid and saw maternal mortality rate declines of 1.6…
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Medicaid and CHIP Enrollment Decline Suggests the Child Uninsured Rate May Rise Again
Executive Summary There is no debate over the fact that children are losing Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) coverage. Overall, more than 828,000, or 2.2 percent, fewer children were enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP, combined, at the end of 2018 than the previous year.[note] Georgetown University Center for Children and Families Analysis of…
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Pregnancy-Related Deaths Are Rising In Utah. Experts say extending Medicaid Could Help Those At Risk
KUER 90.1- Utah’s NPR By: Erik Nuemann … But one of the best ways Utah and other states can slow this increase is by expanding coverage of Medicaid health insurance for pregnant women, according to new research released Wednesday. That’s a politically controversial issue in Utah, though, where coverage gaps remain following the limited expansion state…
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One In Four Texas Women Of Childbearing Age Doesn’t Have Health Insurance.
KUT 90.5 – Austin’s NPR Station By: Ashley Lopez Texas has the highest percentage of uninsured women between the ages of 18 to 44, according to a new study from the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families. The study found that, nationwide, 12.3 percent of women of childbearing age don’t have health insurance. The rate…
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Texas Has the Highest Uninsured Rate in the Country. Lawmakers Haven’t Addressed it This Session.
Texas Observer By: Sophie Novack Texas has the highest overall uninsured rate in the country, the highest rate of uninsured kids and the highest rate of uninsured women of childbearing age. Yet the Legislature is on track to wrap up for the next two years without passing bills to expand coverage… Meanwhile, a study released Wednesday found that Texas has…
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New Research Finds Medicaid Gains Help Lead to Healthier Mothers and Babies
(Following is the press release we issued today on a new report “Medicaid Expansion Fills the Gaps in Maternal Health Coverage Leading to Healthier Mothers and Babies” by Adam Searing and Donna Cohen Ross.) Medicaid helps fill the gaps in maternal health coverage and leads to healthier babies and mothers, according to a new report…
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Research Update: A Spotlight on Children’s Oral Health
This week, I am reading the latest research on children’s oral health. Some of the notable findings include: poorer children’s oral health leads to worse academic performance, there continue to be disparities in access to child preventive oral health services, and providing dental benefits to parents may have a positive impact on children’s use of…
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Kids Coverage at Risk in Arizona
Kids coverage is again at risk in Arizona, as lawmakers there fight over whether to freeze enrollment in the state’s CHIP program (“KidsCare”), which currently covers 34,316 children. An unusual Arizona law requires the KidsCare program to freeze enrollment if the federal matching rate drops below 100%. Because a temporary increase in the CHIP matching…
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Medicaid Expansion Fills Gaps in Maternal Health Coverage Leading to Healthier Mothers and Babies
Introduction Disruptions in health coverage are associated with adverse health consequences.[note] B.D. Sommers et al., “Insurance Churning Rates For LowIncome Adults Under Health Reform: Lower Than Expected But Still Harmful For Many,” Health Affairs 35, no. 10 (October 2016), available at https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2016.0455.[/note] This is especially true for women in their childbearing years, when a pregnancy…
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Trump Administration Proposes to Make Fewer Low-Income Individuals and Families Eligible for Medicaid and CHIP Over Time
The Trump Administration has proposed to change how the Census Bureau’s Official Poverty Measure (OPM) is adjusted annually for inflation. While this sounds like a highly technical change, it would do considerable harm. That is because the OPM is used to set the federal poverty line, which in turn is used to determine income eligibility…
