Web Briefing For Journalists: Medicaid’s Future? Understanding Block Grants and Per Capita Caps

On Thursday, February 23, the Kaiser Family Foundation will host a web briefing for journalists to explain how block grant and per capita cap spending proposals for Medicaid would work and what the possible implications are.

This brief provides the first national estimates of changes in insurance coverage among people with HIV since the implementation of the ACA. We find that coverage increased significantly for people with HIV due to the ACA’s Medicaid expansion; indeed, increased Medicaid coverage in expansion states drove a nationwide increase in coverage for people with HIV.

This brief reviews children’s coverage today and examines what is at stake for children’s coverage in upcoming debates around CHIP funding, repeal and replacement of the ACA, and Medicaid restructuring.

This brief examines insurance practices from before the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare) and highlights challenges in providing access and stable coverage for people, along with issues that any ACA replacement plan will need to address.

In this Washington Post op-ed, Drew Altman discusses how Republicans’ ideas to change Medicaid and Medicare and repeal the Affordable Care Act would fundamentally change the federal role in health, calling it: the biggest change in health we are NOT debating.

President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress have committed to repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act (ACA). How do their replacement proposals compare to the ACA? How do they compare to each other? Includes the Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson amendment (introduced 9/13/2017) as well as other proposals from key members of Congress.

Medicare is likely to be back on the federal policy agenda this year as Congress and President Trump pursue repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, and potentially consider options to reduce federal spending. When talking about Medicare, the nation’s federal health insurance program for 57 million people age 65…

Medicare, the nation’s federal health insurance program for 57 million people age 65 and over and younger people with disabilities, often plays a major role in federal health policy and budget discussions. Medicare is likely to be back on the federal policy agenda as Congress debates repealing and replacing the ACA, and also if policymakers turn their attention to reducing entitlement spending as part of efforts to reduce the growing federal budget deficit and debt. This issue brief presents 10 facts and figures about Medicare’s financial status today and the outlook for the future.

This brief describes Medicaid’s role for nearly 7 million nonelderly adults with disabilities living in the community to help inform the debate about the American Health Care Act’s proposals to end enhanced federal funding under the ACA and reduce federal Medicaid funding under a per capita cap.

On March 9, the House Ways and Means Committee and Energy and Commerce Committee passed the American Health Care Act, the Republican leadership’s plan to repeal and replace the ACA. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the House bill would reduce federal Medicaid spending by $880 billion over ten years by capping federal Medicaid spending and ending enhanced federal funding for Medicaid expansion adults. By 2026, federal Medicaid spending would be 25% lower than expected under current law, and 14 million fewer people would be covered by Medicaid than expected under current law. This brief considers five key Medicaid implications of the House bill.