KHN Medicaid & The Uninsured News

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CMS Gives States Until 2022 To Meet Medicaid Standards Of Care
By Phil Galewitz The Trump administration has given states three more years to meet federal standards aimed at helping elderly and disabled Medicaid enrollees receive services without being forced to go into nursing homes.

Political Theater: How A Bill That Nearly All Opposed Managed To Pass The House
By Phil Galewitz House Republicans can say they kept their campaign promise to replace Obamacare, but they’re counting on the Senate to backstop them.

Mom’s Policy, Medicaid Or A Health Exchange Plan: What’s A Grad To Do?
By Michelle Andrews The federal health law has opened up new options for young adults but it can sometimes be confusing. A quick guide to the choices.

Exodus By Puerto Rican Medical Students Deepens Island’s Doctor Drain
By Carmen Heredia Rodriguez Interest in medical schools is high in Puerto Rico, but many students look to the U.S. mainland for residencies because of higher pay and the commonwealth's declining economy. The migration of young talent is both a symptom and an exacerbation of the island’s medical woes.

Severe Shortage Of Home Health Workers Robs Thousands Of Proper Care
By Judith Graham A critical shortage of home health care workers across the U.S. is denying care for senior citizens and people with disabilities.

CHIP Offers Families With Seriously Ill Kids More Financial Protection Than ACA Plans
By Michelle Andrews Out-of-pocket costs can rise dramatically for children with chronic health issues if a family changes marketplace coverage, according to a new study.

Reluctant Patients, Hispanic Men Pose A Costly Challenge To The Health System
By Michael Anft Many Hispanic men don't seek medical care soon enough and as the Hispanic population grows, some health care professionals are sounding an alarm.

Kids With Hepatitis C Get New Drugs And Coverage May Prove Easier Than For Adults
By Michelle Andrews The drugs, approved by the FDA for children earlier this month, can run $100,000 for a course of treatment.

Grasping For The Middle Ground On Obamacare
By Emily Bazar A University of Southern California professor says conservatives and liberals should split the difference: Scrap the exchanges and expand Medicaid.

As Some Holdout States Revisit Medicaid Expansion, New Data Show It Pays Off
By Shefali Luthra Researchers concluded that because the federal government picked up so much of the tab of expanding eligibility for the low-income insurance program, expansion states didn’t have to skimp on other policy priorities to make ends meet.

CMS Chief To Sit Out Watershed Decision On Medicaid Work Mandate In Kentucky
By Phil Galewitz Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma will recuse herself from the agency's decision-making on whether to approve Kentucky’s Medicaid waiver because she helped develop the proposal in her former job as a health policy consultant.

Missouri Rejects Federal Money In Order To Set Up Its Own Abortion Restrictions
By Durrie Bouscaren, St. Louis Public Radio Abortion is already heavily restricted in Missouri, but now the state is cutting more funding to organizations that provide abortions, even though it means rejecting millions of dollars from the federal government.

Workers Who Give Care To The Homebound Often Can’t Afford To Get Their Own
By Shefali Luthra These workers, who generally do not get health insurance from their employers and fall through public assistance coverage gaps, gained some relief under Obamacare.

California Doctors Again Press For More Money To Treat Poor Patients
By Barbara Feder Ostrov They want the state’s new tobacco tax to help pay for a raise in Medicaid rates, but so far Gov. Jerry Brown has other plans for that money.

GOP Health Plan Aims To Curb Medicaid, Expand State Options
By Phil Galewitz House Republicans’ latest plan to repeal Obamacare would give states flexibility in managing their Medicaid programs, but also some difficult decisions to make.

Low-Income AIDS Patients Fear Coverage Gains May Slip Away
By Carmen Heredia Rodriguez The federal health law made it feasible for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program to expand its efforts and help patients buy marketplace insurance plans to cover drugs and other health care.

Change In Texas Medicaid Payments Helps Cut Number Of Premature Births
By Michelle Andrews Texas has reduced unnecessary early deliveries by 14 percent since refusing to pay doctors who performed C-sections that weren’t medically necessary.

For New Medicaid Patients, The Doctor Is In (Generally). But You May Have To Wait.
By Michelle Andrews A new study examines whether people newly insured through the Affordable Care Act are adding pressure to primary care access challenges.

Lost In Translation: When Parents And Pediatricians Don’t Speak The Same Language
By Ana B. Ibarra Latino parents who speak only Spanish are less likely to report having satisfactory experiences with their children's doctors than Latino parents who speak English, a new California study shows.

Indiana’s Claims About Its Medicaid Experiment Don’t All Check Out
By Jake Harper, Side Effects Public Media Indiana's conservative take on Medicaid expansion is up for renewal in the home state of Vice President Mike Pence. But there are some discrepancies between the state's application for renewal and facts about the program.

Pharmacies Thrive Selling Opioids For Depressed Small Town Pain
By Phil Galewitz Prescription pain pills are strong sellers in this southeastern Kentucky region that’s long struggled with high rates of joblessness and poor health.

Q&A: Efforts To Extend Health Coverage To Undocumented Immigrants
By Ana B. Ibarra California state Sen. Ricardo Lara talks about progress and setbacks in the Trump era.