The budget agreement Congress passed in the wee hours of the morning includes more good news for the 9 million children who rely on the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for their health coverage.
One popular aspect of the Affordable Care Act is its requirement that all individual and small group health plans (for people who don’t have traditional job-based coverage) cover important health benefits like maternity, mental health, preventive, and pediatric dental care. Members of Congress and the Trump administration have frequently proposed measures that would eliminate or undermine these essential health benefits (EHBs), as they are known.
The Trump administration has begun to allow states to include work requirements in their Medicaid programs through waivers. Work requirements don’t help better deliver care to people with Medicaid coverage, and are impermissible under Medicaid law.
As a matter of policy, work requirements won’t help unemployed low-income people find and keep jobs.
On January 31, Families USA staff held a webinar about how state advocates can address Medicaid waiver proposals that include work requirements and other restrictions.
Our experts reviewed recent HHS approvals of work requirements for Medicaid and the tools available for state advocates to address similar proposals.
"We cannot be a country that believes in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness if people do not have access to health care. Where is the liberty when you are chained to the fear that if one of your children gets sick you may not be able to afford to take care of them?" Sen. Cory Booker, D-NJ, at the 23rd Annual Health Action Conference.
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There is overwhelming evidence that the Administration’s actions, working with several conservative governors, are about taking coverage away from people rather than about supporting employment.
Idaho’s governor wants to roll back insurance coverage in the Gem State to the days when it was more expensive to get health care if you had a pre-existing condition.
Governor Butch Otter and Lt. Governor Brad Little signed an executive order on January 5, directing the Idaho Department of Insurance to create new guidelines for health insurance carriers to sell lower-priced, less-comprehensive coverage plans in the state. The Idaho plan will be getting a lot of attention from other governors across the country who want to get around the requirements of the Affordable Care Act.
The Republican tax plan that President Trump recently signed into law ended the federal government’s enforcement of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) individual mandate. Starting in tax season in 2020, people who were uninsured the previous year will no longer pay penalties on their federal income tax returns.
Yesterday marked the 100th day since Congress let funding lapse for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), a critical source of health coverage for many families. Covering 9 million children nationwide, CHIP offers affordable insurance with services particularly geared to the unique health and developmental needs of children.
Happy 2018! We took a break over the holidays to restore ourselves and connect with family and community and hope you did, too. Health care advocates deserved time to celebrate and reflect after achieving monumental success in preventing the repeal of the Affordable Care Act and drastic cuts to Medicaid in 2017.
