- Uninsured rate for poor, childless adults declines, By Michael Ollove, April 10, 2017, Stateline: “As the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress explore ways of repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, a new study shows how beneficial the law has been to poor adults who don’t have children. The study by the Urban Institute found that between 2013 and 2015, the rate of poor, childless adults without health insurance fell by 47.1 percent…”
- Maps show a dramatic rise in health insurance coverage under ACA, By Alyson Hurt, Juan Elosua and Rebecca Hersher, National Public Radio: “New data from the U.S. Census Bureau presents the most detailed picture yet of the dramatic rise in the number of people covered by health insurance since the Affordable Care Act went into effect. County-level data going back to 2010, when the law was signed, shows a patchwork of people living without health insurance that ticked down slowly for the first three years under the ACA. But, once the online insurance exchanges opened at the end of 2013 and Medicaid expanded, the population living without coverage dropped noticeably…”
Tag: Affordable Care Act (ACA)
Medicaid Expansion – Louisiana
Poll: Louisiana residents largely support Medicaid expansion but find ‘Obamacare’ unfavorable, By Elizabeth Crisp, April 11, 2017, Baton Rouge Advocate: “Nearly three-fourths of Louisiana residents approve of the state’s decision to expand Medicaid, a new poll suggests, even as President Donald Trump, who remains widely popular in the state, continues his quest to repeal the federal Affordable Care Act that made expansion possible. The 2017 Louisiana Survey’s findings on health care suggest a disconnect in the relationship between Medicaid health care coverage and the ACA…”
States and Medicaid Expansion
- In health bill’s defeat, Medicaid comes of age, By Kate Zernike, Abby Goodnough and Pam Belluck, March 27, 2017, New York Times: “When it was created more than a half century ago, Medicaid almost escaped notice. Front-page stories hailed the bigger, more controversial part of the law that President Lyndon B. Johnson signed that July day in 1965 — health insurance for elderly people, or Medicare, which the American Medical Association had bitterly denounced as socialized medicine. The New York Times did not even mention Medicaid, conceived as a small program to cover poor people’s medical bills. But over the past five decades, Medicaid has surpassed Medicare in the number of Americans it covers. It has grown gradually into a behemoth that provides for the medical needs of one in five Americans — 74 million people — starting for many in the womb, and for others, ending only when they go to their graves…”
- Medicaid expansion becomes trendy with death of GOP health bill, By Maggie Fox, March 31, 2017, NBC News: “All of a sudden, Medicaid is trendy again. The governor of Kansas vetoed a bill on Thursday that would have expanded Medicaid in his state. But the legislature is reserving the option of trying to override the veto and Virginia and North Carolina are moving toward expansion. Several other states are considering it. It’s a fast turnaround made by states that had resolutely resisted taking part on a major plank of the 2010 Affordable Care Act — the expansion of Medicaid to cover more people…”
- The states where Obamacare’s footprint might get even bigger, By Russell Berman, March 29, 2017, The Atlantic: “Now that the Affordable Care Act has survived its most serious threat in Congress, the law’s footprint across the country might grow even larger in the months ahead. Several states that initially opted out of Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion are now reconsidering their decision as a result of last year’s elections and as Republicans come under new pressure to accept the billions in federal dollars available under the law. The most aggressive push is coming in deep-red Kansas, where the Republican-controlled Senate on Tuesday sent Governor Sam Brownback legislation that could expand the state’s version of Medicaid to as many as 150,000 new enrollees…”
- Brownback vetoes Medicaid expansion; House pauses override debate, By Jonathan Shorman, March 30, 2017, Wichita Eagle: “The fate of Medicaid expansion in Kansas remains undecided – at least until Monday – as supporters of expansion scramble to find votes to override Gov. Sam Brownback’s veto. Brownback vetoed the proposal Thursday morning, one day after receiving it. ‘The cost of expanding Medicaid under ObamaCare is irresponsible and unsustainable,’ he said in his veto message…”
- Arkansas lawmakers send Medicaid expansion to governor, By John Lyon, March 31, 2017, Times Record: “The House on Thursday approved and sent to the governor’s desk a bill that will fund Arkansas’ Medicaid expansion program for another year. House members voted 77-13 to approve Senate Bill 196 by the Joint Budget Committee, a bill to appropriate $8.3 billion in federal and state Medicaid money for traditional Medicaid and the Medicaid expansion program…”
- Georgia to explore Medicaid changes after GOP health plan’s implosion, By Greg Bluestein, March 27, 2017, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Gov. Nathan Deal said Monday his administration is exploring changes to Georgia’s Medicaid program after a sweeping Republican overhaul of the Affordable Care Act was scuttled in a stunning rebuke to Donald Trump and Congressional leaders. The Republican governor said there are limits to what the state can request ‘as long as mandates under the basic Obamacare legislation stand in place.’ But he said the state would review healthcare options that could include changes to ‘mandated minimum coverage’ provisions that require the state Medicaid program to cover a range of health services to recipients…”