Medicaid
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Uninsured Rates for American Indian and Alaska Native Children are Coming Down But Are Still Too High: Medicaid Cuts Put These Kids at Risk
Continuing our deeper dive into recent coverage gains among at-risk populations thanks largely to Medicaid (like our recent report on Medicaid’s disproportionate role for small towns and rural areas), today we are releasing a new paper “Coverage Trends for American Indian and Alaska Native Children and Families.” The big takeaway: Uninsured rates for AI/AN children…
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Don’t Be Fooled by the Optics
The Senate Leadership has released a new version of a “repeal and replace” bill that may be considered by the full Senate next week. The new bill contains a few tweaks of the Medicaid provisions in the prior version, but these don’t fix the fundamental flaw in the bill for children and families: the cap…
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How Medicaid and CHIP Shield Children from the Rising Costs of Prescription Drugs
Nearly a quarter of U.S. children use at least one prescription drug a month, most commonly treating such conditions as asthma, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and infections. Medicaid guarantees that enrolled children who need drugs receive them without any financial barriers, while some in the Children’s Health Insurance Program have a modest copayment. This report, the third in a…
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A Medicaid Beneficiary in Indiana Speaks Out Against Work Requirements
We have been reading the comments that were publicly submitted to CMS on Indiana’s request to add a work requirement to its Medicaid waiver, known as Healthy Indiana Plan (HIP) 2.0. This one jumped out at me: “I live in Indiana and rely on HIP 2.0 for my health insurance. I suffer from Bi-polar Disorder…
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New Texas Law Takes Important Step Towards Healthy Moms and Babies, Medicaid’s Future Will Determine Success
By Adriana Kohler, Texans Care for Children A new Texas law recognizes the powerful link between mothers’ mental health and children’s health, development, and long-term success. And it all started with discussions at a Center for Children and Families conference last summer. Last month, after Texas lawmakers packed their bags and returned home following a…
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Actuaries: Medicaid Caps Will Not Reduce Spending but Transfer Costs to Providers, Insurers, Employers and Individuals
Add the American Academy of Actuaries to the list of experts expressing concerns about the proposed Medicaid caps. In a June 30th letter to the Senate, the experts on insurance risks described how the proposed Medicaid changes would impact states and beneficiaries. In describing the Medicaid caps generally, the Actuaries write that the House and…
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Top 10 Rural Counties With Largest Share of Kids and Adults Relying on Medicaid to Meet Health Needs
Using data from our Rural Health Policy Project, we just took a look at the counties across the country that have the highest percent of children and adults relying on Medicaid for their health care. As readers of SayAhhh! know, our study found that children living in small towns and rural areas are significantly more…
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Research Shows Medicaid Expansion Improves Access to Health Care, Helps Families Achieve Economic Security
While opponents of Medicaid and its expansion under the ACA continue to claim that the value and quality of care provided by Medicaid is lacking, research offers evidence that Medicaid coverage is largely comparable to private coverage (check out our factsheet for more information). According to a new study by the Commonwealth Fund, when compared…
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Top Five Threats to Child Welfare from the Senate Health Care Repeal Proposal
The Senate’s proposal to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and to sharply cut Medicaid payments to states through so-called per capita caps can sound very abstract to social workers and policymakers coping with the day-to-day tragedies and crises of child welfare. But these disastrous changes could take a major step toward becoming law after…
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Medicaid Cap: A Bad Deal that Gets Worse Over Time
As we’ve explained, the Senate Leadership bill to “repeal and replace” the ACA includes a cap on federal Medicaid payments to states with two budget dials: a limit on annual growth and a separate reduction for states that spend more on their Medicaid beneficiaries. These dials are designed to lower federal spending, and it turns…
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Senate Repeal Bill More Than Doubles Number of Uninsured Kids
The “Better Care Reconciliation Act” a.k.a. the Senate’s proposal to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act and cut Medicaid would result in a sharp U-turn in the nation’s historic progress on children’s health coverage. Our nation recently brought the uninsured rate for children down to a record low of less than 5%. A new…
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Fitch Report: Proposed Medicaid Cuts Could Impact States’ Credit Ratings
Medicaid is more than simply the nation’s largest health insurer for children. It’s also the largest source of federal funds to states. The Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA) bill that stalled in the Senate earlier this week would cut federal payments to states by $772 billion over the next 10 years and establish a platform for the…
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Medicaid is Vital to Seniors in Small Towns and Rural Areas
Most of our research is focused on children and families, but as we looked at Medicaid use in small towns and rural areas for our recent report, we were curious what the data showed for seniors. After all, grandparents and older relatives are an important part of most families, and their health and wellbeing is…
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Congressional Budget Office says Senate Bill Would Kick 22 Million People Off of Health Coverage
As readers of SayAhhh! already know, the Senate released a discussion draft of their ACA repeal and replace bill last week and updated it today. We’ve already blogged about the implications we see of the Senate draft – like how it is not nice to children and families, how even Jimmy Kimmel says Medicaid caps…
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Proposed Health Bill Would Increase Consumer Debt and Drive Up Uncompensated Care
The Senate health bill ends retroactive eligibility, hospital presumptive eligibility, and any presumptive eligibility determination for expansion adults, which includes many parents. The end of retroactive eligibility and hospital presumptive eligibility will drive up consumer medical debt, which was the largest cause of U.S. bankruptcies prior to the Affordable Care Act. It will also drive…
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Doubling Down on Dialing Down on Children
Last Thursday, the Senate Leadership released a draft bill to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act. The draft is even worse for the 37 million children that Medicaid covers and the providers who serve them than the bill that narrowly passed the House. Not only would the draft dial down the federal payments to…
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Policymakers, Health Groups, and Jimmy Kimmel Say Medicaid Caps Won’t Work
Over the last week, many health care providers and policy makers have weighed in on the latest health care reform efforts in the Senate. All point to proposed Medicaid caps, which go well beyond the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and undermine well-established paths to coverage for children and families that were in place well before the…
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Medicaid’s Role for Seniors Living in Small Towns and Rural America
Medicaid is a lifeline for millions of older adults (age 65+) who are likely also enrolled in Medicare. Medicaid is the primary payer for long-term services and supports that are not covered by Medicare, paying for more than 50 percent of these costs in 2015. This role is especially important as the population ages: 37…
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Senate Bill is Not Nice to Children and Families
There is a tremendous amount to digest here, and we are still working through the complex text, but one thing is clear – the Senate bill (like the House bill) will start moving the country backwards with respect to child and family coverage. Readers of Say Ahhh! know that the number of uninsured children is…
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The Medicaid Cap: “Carving Out” Medically Complex Kids Won’t Protect Them
The Senate Leadership is reportedly including a cap on federal Medicaid payments to states in its version of legislation to “repeal and replace” the ACA. That cap will apparently look a lot like the cap that narrowly passed the House in early May, but with some tweaks to accommodate concerns of individual Senators. One tweak…
