Rural Health
-
For Rural Hospitals, Medicaid Expansion Acts As Shot In The Arm
KOSU By: Seth Bodine Eight rural hospitals in Oklahoma have closed in the last decade, the third highest rate of rural hospital closures in the country. But, the recent vote to expand Medicaid could provide rural hospitals with a much needed financial boost… Joan Alker, a research professor at Georgetown University who studies healthcare policy,…
-
Rural Disparities, Racial Disparities, and Maternal Health Crisis Call Out for Solutions
Maternal health access and care were already in crisis before COVID-19, and the pandemic has further laid bare the racial and geographic disparities experienced by pregnant women and new mothers across the country. Last month we submitted comments in response to CMS’s request for information on improving access and quality of maternal health in rural…
-
Expanding Medicaid Would Help Keep Rural Hospitals Open in 14 Non-Expansion States
I’ve written before about how America’s rural hospitals are in crisis – and the 14 states that still are refusing to expand Medicaid are contributing to financial woes of these institutions. The coronavirus pandemic has pushed these rural providers to the brink. There is stress throughout the health system with even major hospitals in urban…
-
Solution to Maternal Health Crisis Must Center on Medicaid
Earlier this month, CCF submitted comments to the Senate Finance Committee with recommendations to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity and help mothers and babies thrive together. At the heart of our comments was this: Medicaid must be at the center of any efforts to solve to this crisis. Here’s why. Medicaid paid for nearly half…
-
South Carolina Becomes First State to Impose Harmful Work Requirements Primarily on Poor Parents
I had held out a little sliver of hope that the Trump Administration would not cross this line but today those hopes were extinguished when CMS Administrator Verma traveled to South Carolina to personally deliver the news to South Carolina Governor McMaster that his state would be the first in the nation to apply a…
-
This Thanksgiving, Idahoans are Extremely Thankful for Medicaid Expansion
“I just received my acceptance letter that said I was approved for Medicaid! I’m so grateful for everything you have done for my family. You’re amazing, much love and many blessings…” Anita S. “My coverage will start January 1, 2020 and now hoping to get to be able to work again where the pain has…
-
Medicaid Expansion Proves Once Again to be Popular with Voters/Work Reporting Requirements are Not
Health care was one of the top issues on the minds of voters in Kentucky and Virginia last night and they voted in favor of Democrats who support a clean Medicaid expansion and against Medicaid work requirements – a signature issue for CMS Administrator Seema Verma. Kentucky was an early adopter of the Affordable Care…
-
Medicaid Expansion Debate: A New Phase
Across the states, moving towards an election year typically means a retreat from policymakers wanting to take on major issues of interest to their constituents for fear of offending one side or the other. In an era of increasing “constant campaigns” rather than actual governance, this can mean even more legislative paralysis. But health care…
-
Healthy Schools Campaign Webinar Looks at Importance of Medicaid to Student Success
Think fast: What the third largest stream of federal funding flowing into public schools? Since this is Say Ahhh!, you’re probably guessing Medicaid, and you’d be right. School districts across the country receive an estimated $4.5 billion in federal Medicaid dollars every year. That’s less than 1 percent of federal Medicaid spending, but in terms…
-
CMS Guidance Spotlights Ways Medicaid Can Support Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Services in Schools
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) recently released a Joint Informational Bulletin that offers a helpful roadmap to states and schools on the ways certain Medicaid authorities can help support school-based mental health and substance use disorder services for children and adolescents. As…
-
Is There Really A Question? Intervenor States Have Clear Interest in Defending the Affordable Care Act
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has asked the parties in Texas v. United States to file supplemental briefings on the issue of whether the defendant states attorneys generals and the U.S. House of Representatives have standing to appeal. Standing is a legal term that means a party has a right to bring a lawsuit,…
-
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…
-
Nebraska Residents Will Have to Wait for Medicaid Expansion While Governor Puts More Obstacles in Path to Coverage
Writer George Orwell would love the Nebraska Governor’s complex plan to implement the simple expansion of Medicaid health coverage passed by Nebraska voters in 2018 that would help an estimated 95,000 of the state’s residents gain coverage. In Orwell’s book “1984”, the fictional state of Oceania asked citizens to accept opposing ideas as both being…
-
Child Health Providers and Advocates Ask HHS Secretary to Reject Work Requirements for Low-Income Parents
Today Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families joined over 50 other national health care provider, research and consumer groups focused on children and families to send a letter to HHS Secretary Alex Azar raising concerns about the harm of work requirements for children and families, particularly in states that have not expanded Medicaid. The…
-
Top 10 Rural Counties Where Kids Rely on Medicaid for Health Coverage
As readers of SayAhhh! know, Georgetown University CCF and the University of North Carolina’s Sheps Rural Health Research Center has a joint project which has been tracking the role of Medicaid for rural areas and small towns. We recently updated our online data resource with county figures for 2015/2016, a time period during which the impact…
-
CMS Weighing Decision that Would Lead to Loss of Health Coverage for Thousands of Tennessee Families Living in Poverty
Tennessee, a state that has not accepted the option to expand Medicaid to more low-income adults, has become the fifth state to ask CMS to impose a work or community service reporting requirement on parents with incomes at or below 98% of the federal poverty level. South Carolina is next in the queue. If the…
-
Lack of ACA Navigator Funding Leads to Consumer Confusion, Decreased Enrollment
Open Enrollment is over in most states, and enrollment numbers are down slightlyfrom 8.8 million plan selections on healthcare.gov for plan year 2018 to 8.4 million plan selections for plan year 2019. Navigators thought the 2018 Open Enrollment was challenging, after a slew of policy changes including massive Navigator grant funding cuts, shortened enrollment period, 90 percent cuts to federal…
-
Oklahoma’s Medicaid Waiver Proposal Will Harm Its Most Vulnerable Families
Unfortunately, our series of reports looking at harmful state Medicaid work requirement rules targeting very poor parents is getting longer. Today we are releasing an updated look at Oklahoma’s proposal, which is currently up for public comment at the federal level. Six states now have active proposals – Mississippi, Alabama, and South Dakota have proposals…
-
Medicaid Waiver Proposal For Oklahoma Medicaid Beneficiaries Would Harm Low-Income Families With Children
Introduction Through an amendment to its Section 1115 Medicaid demonstration waiver, Oklahoma is seeking federal permission to impose work reporting rules on very low-income parents and caregivers age 19-50 receiving health coverage through Medicaid. Parents of children below age six would be exempt. Under the proposal, which would be phased in, these beneficiaries would have…
-
New Report Finds South Carolina’s Medicaid Waiver Would Leave Thousands of Poor Parents Uninsured
[Editor’s Note: On March 4, 2019 South Carolina posted a revised application for state public comment.] Just before the holidays, South Carolina posted its application for new work-related reporting rules for very low-income parents and caretaker relatives with incomes below 67 percent of the poverty line who are insured through Medicaid. Today we partnered with South Carolina…
