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As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, states have taken a number of Medicaid policy actions to address the impact on seniors and people with disabilities, many of whom rely on long-term services and supports (LTSS) to meet daily needs and are at increased risk of adverse health outcomes if infected with coronavirus.
This analysis provides new national and state-level estimates of the number of health care workers and long-term care residents who are expected to be part of the group first in line to receive the COVID-19 vaccine to gain insight into how this initial priority population varies across states.
This month the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) adopted a recommendation that health care workers and long-term care residents should be the first to receive the COVID-19 vaccine once it is authorized or approved by the FDA. A new KFF analysis estimates there are 15.5 million people working in health care settings who have direct patient contact, 1.2 million nursing facility residents and another 800,000 assisted living facility residents nationwide. These 17.6 million…
Since 2008, the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured has periodically surveyed state Money Follows the Person (MFP) programs, conducted state case studies, and profiled the experiences of individual MFP beneficiaries. Based on the information and data collected in our six surveys, we identify some lessons learned from MFP that could inform future Medicaid long-term services and supports rebalancing policies.
A new brief from KFF (the Kaiser Family Foundation) examines potential changes to “spousal impoverishment” rules in Medicaid that allow married couples to protect a portion of their income and assets should one spouse seek Medicaid coverage for long-term care. A provision of the Affordable Care Act that requires state Medicaid programs to apply such rules to home- and community-based long-term care is set to expire on December 31. That could tip the balance of financial…
Medicaid, the main health insurance program for low-income people and the single largest source of public coverage in the U.S., turns 50 this year. In that time, it has grown to cover nearly 70 million Americans and become a key source of financing for safety net hospitals and health centers, as well as the main source of coverage and financing of long-term care. The program continues to be a focus of policy debate and partisan…
Medicaid’s Money Follows the Person (MFP) demonstration has helped seniors and people with disabilities move from institutions to the community by providing enhanced federal matching funds to states since 2007. The program operates in 44 states and has served over 90,000 people as of June 2018. The program is credited with helping many states establish formal institution to community transition programs that did not previously exist by enabling them to develop the necessary service and…
To financially qualify for Medicaid long-term services and supports (LTSS), an individual must have a low income and limited assets. In response to concerns that these rules could leave a spouse without adequate means of support when a married individual needs LTSS, Congress created the spousal impoverishment rules in 1988. Originally, these rules required states to protect a portion of a married couple’s income and assets to provide for the “community spouse’s” living expenses when…
On Friday, Feb. 7, KFF hosted a conversation with Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and Washington State Gov. Jay Inslee about their states’ efforts to establish a public health insurance option and make other changes to address health costs and access. The two governors have made health reforms a key part of their agendas and are seeking to expand access to affordable coverage for their residents through a public option – an approach that some national…
State policy choices about Medicaid home and community-based services (HCBS) shape these benefits in important ways for the seniors and people with disabilities who rely on them to live independently in the community. This issue brief presents the latest data from the KFF's annual survey of Medicaid HCBS program policies in all 50 states and DC.
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