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Various market watchers have reported that the use of health care services has not been growing recently as it had in the past, resulting in lower than expected health care claims for people with private insurance and higher than expected earnings for insurers. A look at physician office visits by nonelderly patients with private insurance over the past decade illustrates the change in the use of services (See the chart below). (This analysis was prepared…
Beginning in 2014, health coverage options will significantly expand under health reform through an expansion in Medicaid eligibility and by making tax credits available to help individuals purchase coverage through new Health Benefit Exchanges. Given their high uninsured rate and limited access to private and public coverage, one group who could significantly benefit from this coverage expansion is lawfully residing immigrant families. However, it will be important to address barriers eligible immigrant families often face…
This paper examines the impact on enrollment and families of Arizona's Dec. 21, 2009, decision to freeze enrollment in KidsCare, the state's Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). The CHIP enrollment freeze, enacted in response to recession-driven state budget pressures, saved the state $12.9 million in FY 2011, but has also resulted in more than 100,000 children being placed on a waiting list for coverage and the loss of $41 million in federal matching funds. Issue…
Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), millions of uninsured adults and children will gain eligibility for Medicaid or health coverage through new health insurance Exchanges beginning in 2014. The law calls upon states to develop simple and streamlined processes for establishing, verifying, and updating eligibility for Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program and federal subsidies for Exchange coverage. This issue brief examines how states can employ "express lane" principles in designing systems…
This analysis provides an overview of online applications for Medicaid and/or CHIP and examines the extent to which they incorporate features that streamline and simplify the enrollment process for individuals. Thirty-two states currently offer an online application for one or both of these programs that is accessible by the public and can be electronically submitted, although they vary in their features. A key component of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is the creation…
Medicaid is a jointly financed partnership between the federal government and states. The federal-state financing and administrative structure of Medicaid provides a framework of federal core requirements along with broad state options for program design and administration. This issue brief presents an overview of the current Medicaid program framework, with a focus on eligibility, benefits and cost sharing, care delivery and provider payment, long-term services and supports, and dual eligibles, as well as key issues…
This fact sheet examines how the recent recession drove up Medicaid enrollment as millions of Americans lost jobs and income, and how that increase in enrollment has been the primary cause of the increase in overall Medicaid spending. Fact Sheet (.pdf)
This report examines Medicaid spending growth nationally during the last decade, with a focus on growth during the recession of 2007 to 2009. The recession-driven enrollment growth in recent years drove program spending to increase faster than national health spending overall, but on a per enrollee basis the growth in Medicaid spending has remained lower than the rise in private insurance premiums and overall national health expenditures. The recession-driven increase in Medicaid enrollment has been…
Three papers from the Foundation's Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured examine Medicaid enrollment and spending during the recent recession. The analyses show Medicaid enrollment rose above 50 million people nationally for the first time in 2010, reflecting the program’s counter-cyclical role of helping people who become uninsured when the economy falters, with many turning to Medicaid after losing jobs and employer-based health insurance. Without access to Medicaid coverage, millions more people who suffered economic…
The following resources by the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured (KCMU) examine the latest data findings regarding Medicaid’s long-term services and supports for seniors and people with disabilities. The materials were released at a public briefing in the Foundation’s Washington, D.C. offices that featured an expert panel and remarks on long-term services and supports by U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius. The reports include: Medicaid Home and Community-Based…
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