Medicaid
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What Was Medicaid Doing in a Foreign Policy Debate?
My oldest son was required to watch this week’s presidential debate and report back to his teacher on flawed logical reasoning by the candidates. I thought my husband, who is somewhat of a foreign policy wonk, would be on homework helper duty and I could just sit back and enjoy the show—after all, it was…
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More Children Have Health Insurance Thanks to Medicaid, CHIP and ACA
Today we released a report with some encouraging news for America’s children and families. Our report found that despite the fact that childhood poverty remained high, the number of uninsured children declined last year. This builds on the good news on young adult coverage gains reported in September. The Affordable Care Act was behind the young…
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Uninsured Children 2009-2011: Charting the Nation’s Progress
Georgetown University Center for Children and Families researchers analyzed health insurance data from the Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey to get a closer look at children’s coverage trends. The authors found that the nation continues to make steady progress covering children, despite no reduction in the number of children living in poverty. A strong commitment to…
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Vote Now for Favorite Comments on New Mexico’s Medicaid Waiver Proposal
By Wesley Prater HHS has done a good job of inserting more transparency into the Medicaid waiver approval process and providing “waiver watchers” with an opportunity to provide our input on important health care policy decisions. One way the agency is collecting input is through the “CMS Idea Factory” website. Now is the time to…
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Covering Parents is Good for Kids: Treating Depressed Mothers Can Help Children’s Development
Editor’s Note: Welcome to the fourth in a series of blogs on how covering parents helps children. Previous blogs on this topic have pointed out that extending Medicaid coverage to parents will provide a good value to states; maternal, infant and early childhood home visiting programs help prevent child maltreatment; and the single best way…
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Pregnant Women’s Medicaid Eligibility After 2014 – What’s the Minimum?
By Martha Heberlein A great degree of confusion surrounds this question and for good reason. You may be surprised to learn that come January 1, 2014, states must cover pregnant women in Medicaid at either 133% of the FPL OR the income standard in place as of December 19, 1989 (or as of July 1,…
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Uninsured Vets and Their Families Will Benefit from ACA
It was somewhat startling to learn that one in ten veterans are uninsured in the U.S. A report released earlier this summer by the Urban Institute’s Jennifer Haley and Genevieve Kenney (based on 2010 ACS data) found that 1.3 million of the nation’s 12.5 million nonelderly veterans did not have health insurance coverage and weren’t using…
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State Fact Sheets Highlight Importance of Medicaid Coverage for Children
By Ielnaz Kashefipour, American Academy of Pediatrics The American Academy of Pediatrics, in partnership with the Children’s Hospitals Association (formerly NACHRI), this week produced updated state-by-state fact sheets that explain the importance of the Medicaid program for children. These fact sheets are used in federal and state advocacy efforts to protect the Medicaid program from…
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Stand Up for Kids By Voting For Comments on Kansas Medicaid Waiver Proposal on Idea Factory
HHS has done a good job of inserting more transparency into the Medicaid waiver approval process and providing “waiver watchers” with an opportunity to provide our input on important health care policy decisions. One way the agency is collecting input is through the “Idea Factory” website. Now is the time to take HHS up on…
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Federal Policy Makes a Difference in the Lives of Children and Families
As many readers know, this week the annual Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey numbers were released and the number of uninsured persons actually declined for the first time since 2007 – by 1.4 million. Since 2007 the number of uninsured adults has been growing – this year marks the first turnaround. This bit of good…
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More Kids Will Be Connected with Coverage Thanks to ACA
By Lincoln Nehring, Voices for Utah Children The Affordable Care Act reduces the number of eligible, but unenrolled kids in Medicaid and CHIP. Despite what you may have heard, this is a good thing. In a recent opinion piece in the Washington Times, Utah Governor Gary Herbert concedes that the ACA’s now-optional Medicaid expansion is…
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Report Sheds Light on Block Grants
We’ve heard a lot about how block-granting Medicaid will allow states more flexibility but we haven’t heard much about the potential impact such a proposal might have on low-income families. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities recently issued a report that sheds light on that issue. CBPP’s report, “How States Have Spent Federal and…
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Covering Parents: A Solution Child Advocates Can Get Behind
Before the Supreme Court decision on the Affordable Care Act, we released a paper highlighting the fact that 4.9 million parents stand to gain coverage through Medicaid in 2014. That research became even more significant after the Supreme Court ruling removed an important mechanism for the HHS Secretary to incentivize states to accept federal funds…
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Study Finds Medicaid Beneficiaries’ Use of Hospital Emergency Departments Comparable to Privately Insured Patients
By Tara Mancini Medicaid seems to be a lightening rod for inaccurate assumptions such as it’s too expensive for states (it’s a good deal for states), overall cost (more cost-effective than private insurance) and beneficiaries using hospital Emergency Departments for routine care. Until recently, there had not been much research to refute the perception of…
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Another ACA Double Win for States and Families: Aligning Medicaid Coverage for Children of All Ages
Imagine you’re a parent with a pre-schooler and a 9 year-old child, earn $20,000 a year (105% FPL) and live in Georgia. Your younger child qualifies for Medicaid coverage but has to renew coverage every six months. Your older child qualifies for CHIP coverage with a monthly premium of $10 but only has to renew…
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In the Aftermath of SCOTUS: Should States Get Medicaid Waivers Allowing Partial Expansions?
One of the many questions that has arisen since the Supreme Court handed down its decision on the Affordable Care Act is whether a state could do a partial expansion – say to 100% of the poverty line — rather than 133% of FPL. This number is not plucked from the air but rather reflects…
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ACA To Keep Foster Care Youth Covered As They Transition to Adulthood
Young adults have historically been among the demographic groups with the highest rates of uninsurance. Many of these young adults are just joining the workforce and are unable to secure jobs with health benefits. In fact, nearly two out of five young adults ages 19 to 29 were without health insurance in 2011, with those…
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New Study Suggests that Expanding Medicaid Coverage Can Save Lives
By Tara Mancini A new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine adds to the relatively sparse body of knowledge regarding the impact of Medicaid on adults’ health. Researchers looked at three states, Maine, New York, and Arizona that made Medicaid available to childless adults between 2000 and 2005 and found a net decrease…
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How States Transition to New Medicaid Income Standards Could Impact Coverage for Kids and Families
By Martha Heberlein The ACA established a new Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI) standard that will be used to determine income eligibility in Medicaid, CHIP, and for premium tax credits. Under this new approach, states are required to convert their existing Medicaid and CHIP eligibility standards to account for the elimination of income disregards and…
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More Interesting Tidbits from the CBO ACA Score
By Martha Heberlein Our blog post from last week gave the high-level numbers of CBO’s updated score on the ACA, but we wanted to pass along a few more nuggets. If a state fails to extend Medicaid to low-income uninsured adults, it will increase the cost of covering Exchange participants. In states that elect to…