Medicaid
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Florida Makes Significant Progress on Children’s Health Coverage But It is at Risk
Our latest brief looks how Florida has cut its rate of uninsured children by more than half since 2009. The rate dropped from 14.8 percent to 6.2 percent in 2016, an all-time low. In raw numbers, that means the state went from having 601,000 uninsured kids to 257,000. Much of that progress can be attributed…
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Graham-Cassidy Would Unravel Innovative and Smart Investments in Young Children
As we celebrate the good news of the highest health coverage levels on record for children, the latest ACA repeal effort in Congress once again threatens to destabilize the foundation of coverage for our nation’s children. We’ve written before about the ways that structural changes to Medicaid through block grants or caps will harm young…
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The Medicaid Cap: Still a Terrible Idea for Children and Families
The Senate Majority Leader has announced his intention to take up the Graham-Cassidy proposal next week. The proposal has lots of moving parts. None of them are kid- or family-friendly. And one of them—the cap on federal Medicaid payments to states—is not only very unfriendly, but it will last forever. The cap first emerged in…
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Medicaid Caps Put Children at Risk
Some recent health policy proposals have included converting Medicaid into a block grant and cutting funding levels. Policymakers that support these proposals are citing the success of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), funded by a block grant, as justification for the idea. In this analysis, CCF researchers review the role of Medicaid and CHIP in…
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Children Would Fall Through Cracks if Graham-Cassidy Becomes Law
There’s much ado in the news today about what the “Graham-Cassidy” plan does with respect to CHIP. Two impacts of Graham-Cassidy on CHIP are very clear. First, by cutting Medicaid, Graham-Cassidy would undermine the foundation upon which CHIP sits. Medicaid covers four times as many children as CHIP, so cutting Medicaid by imposing a per-capita…
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Jimmy Kimmel Calls Out Graham-Cassidy for Failing to Protect Kids with Pre-Existing Conditions
It’s déjà vu in D.C. as the Senate tries again to pass a ACA repeal and gut Medicaid through Graham-Cassidy—a bill that’s arguably worse for kids, families, and states than previous attempts. Even as many have tired of the whiplash, it cannot be understated that this new threat is as serious as those over the…
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New Urban Institute Interactive Analysis Shows Rising Cost for Families Using Employer-Sponsored Insurance
It’s no secret that private health insurance is expensive and that, over time, employers have passed more and more of the cost onto workers and their families. Still, when federal policy changes are being contemplated, there is often the sense that families have access to employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) to fall back on. This is especially…
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Progress on CHIP Extension Threatened by Graham-Cassidy Repeal Effort
Though we were optimistic about the chances of swift, bipartisan action on CHIP last week, that optimism has waned as the partisan rhetoric around repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act has heated up again. The simple fact of the matter is that you cannot have movement on these two initiatives at once. Unfortunately, the…
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Medicaid’s “Welcome Mat” Effect Means Medicaid Expansion Helps Children Get Health Coverage
New research in the journal Health Affairs this month gives even more evidence for a parental “welcome mat” effect that increases health coverage among children already eligible for Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program when their parents become eligible as well. Simply put, moving to “whole family coverage” through a state Medicaid expansion or…
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U.S. Continues Progress in Children’s Health: Over 95% of U.S. Children Have Health Insurance
Today the Census Bureau partially released the 2016 American Community Survey (ACS) health insurance data. According to the data, the insured rate among children under age 19 is now at an all-time high of 95.3 percent. This continues the upward trend of the children’s insured rate since 2008. Overall, 2016 shows promising developments for children’s…
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Medicaid: The Port in a Storm for Children and Families
As Harvey and Irma remind us, natural disasters happen. And when they do, they threaten the health of children and families and the ability of providers to deliver needed services. It takes time for displaced families, providers, and communities to get back on their feet. It also takes resources. While federal Medicaid funds are always…
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Reduced Funding for Navigators and Public Education Could Harm Nation’s Success in Covering Kids
No smart business stops investing in marketing and customer support when sales are down. But that’s exactly what the Trump administration is doing by cutting funding for advertising and navigators. The recent announcement that CMS is decreasing Healthcare.gov’s direct marketing budget by 90 percent and reducing funding to navigator entities by almost half is shortsighted for…
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HHS Bulletin on Medicaid and CHIP Managed Care Regulations Raises Red Flags
Last year, HHS finalized changes to the Medicaid and CHIP managed care regulations to modernize and streamline program rules for the first time in over a decade. Nearly 9 in 10 children enrolled in Medicaid/CHIP get their care through some type of managed care arrangement, so we teamed up with NHeLP to review the rules…
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Back-to-School Season Focuses Attention on Need to Connect More Kids with Health Coverage
Children’s health advocates have their hands full trying to preserve Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for America’s children, but they can’t slow down on their efforts to connect more kids with coverage. Most uninsured children are eligible for Medicaid or CHIP but are unenrolled because their parents aren’t aware of the option…
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Recent Research Shows Disparities in Health Care Access Reduced After The ACA
We know that access to health care is correlated with many demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. The Affordable Care Act, through the Medicaid expansion and the marketplace, extended coverage to uninsured populations with the hope of reducing disparities in access to health care. After the first couple of years of the insurance expansions, research shows that…
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Arkansas and Nevada Latest to Eliminate 5-Year Waiting Period for Lawfully Residing Children
The Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 gave states the option to improve Medicaid access by waiving the 5-year waiting period for lawfully residing immigrant children. With Arkansas and Nevada coming on board, this option has now been adopted by 33 states. Earlier this year, the Arkansas legislature passed a resolution to waive…
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More Children In U.S. Illegally To Receive Health Care
Huffington Post By Michael Ollove Last year, California extended full Medicaid benefits to child immigrants, no matter their immigration status, if their families otherwise meet the income thresholds for the joint federal-state health insurance program for the poor and disabled. Dolores, now 17, is enrolled. …. “These benefits give parents great peace of mind and…
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Medicaid: Stronger After Senate Rejects Cap
A dramatic 49-51 vote in the Senate last Friday brought an end to the effort to cap federal payments to state Medicaid programs–at least for now. This was the third major push to cap federal payments to states in Medicaid’s 52-year history. In 1981, President Reagan and his Budget Director, David Stockman, narrowly failed in…
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New Pediatric Quality Core Measure Set Released by Collaborative of Public and Private Payers
About a year and a half ago, CMS, commercial health plans, Medicare and Medicaid managed care plans, purchasers, physician and other health-related professional groups, and consumers teamed up to reach consensus on core quality measures that would be reported across payers in the public and private sectors. The initiative, known as the Core Quality Measures…
