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A provision in the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021 gives states a new option to extend Medicaid postpartum coverage to 12 months via a state plan amendment. This new option took effect on April 1, 2022 and is available to states for five years. Using Medicaid claims data from 2018, this brief examines enrollment patterns in the year following childbirth.
In recent weeks, the United States has been grappling with a baby formula shortage following supply chain issues, a voluntary recall, and the closing of a plant that produces a large share of the country’s formula. Since it is recommended that infants receive breast milk or formula until they are age one, this shortage has had a significant impact across the country. Infants in low-income families and infants of color, who are often covered by Medicaid, may be particularly impacted by the shortage resulting in potential short and long-term health risks.
In this issue brief, we use 2020 data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) to examine key characteristics, coverage and health status of nonelderly adults with mental illness or substance use disorders to help inform ongoing federal and state efforts to improve quality and expand access.
In this column for the JAMA Health Forum, Larry Levitt highlights four changes implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic that helped to make health care more accessible and affordable and the prospects for those changes to telehealth, COVID-19 coverage, Medicaid and marketplace premiums continuing beyond the pandemic’s end.
This Policy Watch gives an overview of employers offering to cover travel expenses for workers who need to go out of state for an abortion in the context of increasing restrictions on abortion around the country. We discuss who is offering these benefits, the implications for workers, and some of the legal and political concerns for employers.
This brief examines typical enrollment patterns for Medicaid and CHIP and uses 2018 Medicaid claims data to gain insight into the effects of the continuous enrollment requirements by eligibility group. Roughly 2% of Medicaid enrollees come on or leave the program in an average month, although there is variation across eligibility groups. A policy to require continuous enrollment would result in sharp reductions in monthly disenrollment rates and would also reduce monthly enrollment rates due to reductions in churn.
When the federal government ends COVID-19 emergency declarations that were declared in the early days of the pandemic, it will bring to a close several changes that were enacted temporarily to enable the U.S. health care system to better deal with the crisis.
Starting April 1, states have a new option to extend Medicaid postpartum coverage from 60 days to 12 months without having to seek a waiver.
Although federal legislation intends to provide no-cost rape kits to all survivors of sexual violence, some survivors still face out-of-pocket charges for minimum standard rape kit services as well as other medical care that takes place following a sexual assault. This brief examines the policies that impact coverage of health care services for survivors of sexual assault and identifies gaps in those programs and coverage for their care, particularly for women with private health insurance.
Continuous enrollment in Medicaid and enhanced premium assistance have helped millions afford and maintain coverage, but those gains could be reversed as the public emergency ends and if the provisions like those in the Build Back Better Act fail to pass.
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