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Rural Health

  • The Importance of Medicaid to Kentucky’s Rural Areas is Eye Popping

    Joan Alker

    In 2017, we embarked on a new project with the Rural Health Research Program at the University of North Carolina Sheps Center for Health Services Research to examine the role of Medicaid in rural areas and small towns. In our first report, Medicaid is a Lifeline for Small Towns and Rural Communities, we highlighted the…

  • New Policy Brief asks: “Why are Tennessee moms and babies dying at such a high rate?”

    Haley Byman

    Tennessee Justice Center’s recent policy brief focuses on rising rates of infant and maternal mortality in Tennessee. When I saw the state’s dismal outcomes in the 2018 America’s Health Rankings Health of Women and Children report, I immediately wanted to learn why moms and babies were dying at higher and higher rates in Tennessee. According…

  • Medicaid at the 2018 Ballot Box: What to Look For (Part 1)

    Joan Alker

    Next Tuesday (as usual) I will be staying up late to see what happens in the midterm elections. But for the first time in more than twenty years of working on Medicaid there will be so much to watch out for that will directly affect Medicaid! Today I will start with the 17 states that…

  • More Rural Hospitals Closing in States Refusing Medicaid Coverage Expansion

    Adam Searing

    The University of North Carolina’s Rural Health Research Program tracks closures of rural hospitals across the country. From 2010 to the present there are six states with five or more rural hospital closures. Texas leads with a stunning 15 rural hospitals closed, followed closely by Tennessee (9 rural hospitals closed) and Georgia (7 rural hospitals…

  • Rural Residents and Communities Have Much at Stake in Medicaid Expansion

    Joan Alker

    Last year, working with our partners at the University of North Carolina’s Rural Health Project, we released a report that underscored the critical role that Medicaid plays in rural areas and small towns with populations below 50,000. This year Jack Hoadley, Mark Holmes and I took a look at how Medicaid expansion has impacted these same…

  • Health Insurance Coverage in Small Towns and Rural America: The Role of Medicaid Expansion

    Jack Hoadley

    Introduction Medicaid has been a key factor in lowering the percentage of Americans who lack health insurance. Nationally, the uninsured rate for all Americans under the age of 65 (adults and children) fell dramatically between 2010 and 2016 from 18.2 percent to 10.4 percent, rising slightly to 10.7 percent in 2017. Expansion of Medicaid coverage…

  • Public Comments are Virtually Unanimous Against Mississippi’s Harmful Medicaid Proposal

    Joan Alker

    Last month, federal CMS reopened the public comment period on Mississippi’s proposed Section 1115 Medicaid work requirements waiver at the same time as Kentucky’s comment period was reopened. Mississippi’s proposal has not garnered as much attention as Kentucky’s,  which as regular readers of SayAhhh! know, is currently on hold due to a federal court decision.…

  • Louisiana Report: 2016 Medicaid Expansion Cut Adult Uninsured Rate in Half, Reduced Coverage Disparities, Benefited Rural and Urban Areas

    Adam Searing

    A new report from the Louisiana Department of Health, the 2017 Louisiana Health Insurance Survey, shows multiple positive effects from Louisiana’s recent Medicaid expansion – and continuing overall satisfaction with Medicaid and other coverage.  While the report focused on adult coverage, it also noted that Louisiana retains its remarkable success at reducing the uninsured rate…

  • Medicaid Expansion: The Facts Are In

    Adam Searing

    With 34 states (including DC) now expanding Medicaid since 2014 and 17 states still refusing expansion, the ability for researchers to compare patient experiences in these disparate two groups of states has resulted in literally hundreds of high-quality studies – a “natural experiment” created by the Supreme Court’s decision to make the expansion optional. A…

  • Analysis of Ohio’s report on Medicaid expansion

    CCFadmin

    On Tuesday, August 21, the Ohio Department of Medicaid (ODM) released the second “assessment” of the Medicaid expansion as a follow-up to the first, General Assembly required, assessment from 2016. In this document the ODM found the following: EMPLOYMENT Employment for enrollees went up 15%, meaning 1 in 2 expansion enrollees are working The most common reason for…

  • Summary of Mississippi’s Revised Section 1115 Medicaid Waiver Proposal

    CCFadmin

    Overview: A revised version of Mississippi’s Section 1115 waiver proposal, which seeks to condition Medicaid eligibility on compliance with a work/community engagement requirement for very low-income parents/caregivers, has been re-opened by the federal government for public comment. Comments on the waiver, known as the “Mississippi Workforce Training Initiative,” are due by August 18, 2018. The…

  • Oklahoma’s Proposed Work Rule Would Harm Mothers and Children

    Joan Alker

    Oklahoma has one of the highest uninsured rates for children in the nation, and the state will likely make matters worse if it gets a green light from CMS to go through with a plan to impose more red tape requirements on poor parents. Oklahoma is seeking approval to amend its Section 1115 demonstration waiver…

  • Proposed Fix to Harmful Medicaid Waivers Impacting Very Poor Parents in Alabama and Mississippi is no Fix at All

    Joan Alker

    Both Alabama and Mississippi have submitted Medicaid Section 1115 waiver proposals that would impose work/community engagement requirements rules on poor parents and caregivers. Because these states have not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act and have some of them most restrictive eligibility limits in the nation, most people facing loss of health coverage due…

  • Perry County to Tuscaloosa: A 70-Minute Drive for Rural Women Seeking Obstetrics Care

    Allexa Gardner

    I have driven the 57 miles from Perry County, Alabama to Tuscaloosa many times, with long stretches of bumpy road that is marred by stop lights as you get closer to the city. All in all it’s about a 70-minute drive, a 70-minute drive residents of Perry County have to make if they need to…

  • Update: State Data on Health Coverage in Small Towns and Rural Areas, 2015/16

    CCFadmin

    The state-specific downloads in the table below show county-level data on Medicaid coverage and uninsurance for the time periods 2008/09 and 2015/16. Uninsurance rates for seniors are not presented because they are so low. Delaware, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and the District of Columbia are excluded because less than 2 percent of their residents live in counties…

  • Medicaid Expansion Brings Improvements in Coverage and Utilization to Rural CHC Patients

    Karina Wagnerman

    We previously blogged on research showing that the Medicaid expansion helps keep rural hospitals open and that the Medicaid expansion disproportionately benefited rural communities. We came to a similar conclusion in our own research when we analyzed Medicaid coverage in small towns and rural America. We found that the rate of uninsured adults in expansion…

  • South Carolina’s Medicaid Proposal Will Harm Children and Families

    Joan Alker

    South Carolina is the latest state to consider imposing a work requirement on parents receiving Medicaid. While there’s no formal proposal yet, officials have outlined their plans in a concept paper that raises as many questions as it answers. In a report we released today, we outline the problems with imposing a work requirement in…

  • Why Virginia Expanded Medicaid: Five Key Reasons

    Adam Searing

    Virginia decided today to expand Medicaid, which will allow the state to start to cover approximately 400,000 people who are unable to afford health plans yet too poor to get tax credit subsidies to buy insurance. This is a significant win for Virginians and for bipartisan cooperation in an increasingly partisan age as a newly-elected…

  • Kansas Legislators Reject a New Barrier to Medicaid Coverage for Very Poor Parents and CMS Just Might Agree

    Joan Alker

    At CCF we have been doing a lot of work lately trying to educate folks about who exactly is impacted by Medicaid waivers that create new barriers to coverage in states that have not accepted the option to expand Medicaid. As our recent reports on Alabama and Mississippi show, these work requirement proposals will result…

  • Mississippi’s Proposed Medicaid Work Rule Would Disproportionately Harm Mothers Living in Small Towns and Rural Areas of State

    Joan Alker

    Mississippi’s request for a Medicaid work requirement has emerged as the one to watch. Its section 1115 waiver is now awaiting federal action and could well be the test of whether states that have never accepted the Medicaid expansion can impose this sort of requirement on their most vulnerable parents. CCF, working with the Mississippi…