Medicaid’s Future

While the future of legislation to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and make fundamental changes to the structure and funding of the Medicaid program is uncertain, states and the Administration may achieve major changes to Medicaid through the use of Section 1115 Medicaid waivers. Wisconsin submitted a waiver amendment request to CMS in June 2017 and Maine submitted a waiver application to CMS in August 2017. Unlike previous waivers that encompass the ACA’s Medicaid expansion, Wisconsin and Maine are seeking waiver authority to make significant changes to Medicaid that would affect non-expansion Medicaid populations.

With House Republicans passing the American Health Care Act (AHCA), their plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and the Senate currently debating the plan and discussing their own approach, the latest tracking poll finds more view the ACA favorably than view the AHCA favorably. The poll examines attitudes towards specific provisions included in the replacement plan and how the public thinks the replacement plan will affect their own health care.

In this Axios column, Drew Altman lays out how the “political pain” from the American Health Care Act would play out over the next two election cycles if passed in its current form, based on the Congressional Budget Office’s analysis of the House-passed bill.

Public Grows More Pessimistic About How Repeal Will Affect Them Personally Most (55%) of the public holds an unfavorable view of the Congressional plan that would repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, and the same share (55%) want the Senate either to make major changes to the House-passed bill…

In this Axios column, Drew Altman highlights that the federal debate about the American Health Care Act’s Medicaid spending reductions will ultimately be a debate about every state’s general budget spending priorities, as states discuss whether to offset reductions in federal revenues with some combination of cuts to their Medicaid programs, increased taxes, and cuts to spending in other areas.

This issue brief examines the factors that could affect states’ ability to cope with reductions in federal Medicaid funding of the sort proposed in the House-passed American Health Care Act (AHCA), which would eliminate enhanced federal matching funds for the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion and convert Medicaid to a per capita cap or block grant system of financing.

The Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) is an important complement to Medicaid, covering 8.4 million children with family incomes above Medicaid eligibility limits who often lack access to affordable private coverage. Following are key facts that highlight what is at stake for children if there is a failure to extend CHIP funding beyond September 2017 and based on changes proposed in the American Health Care Act (AHCA), which would fundamentally restructure Medicaid by capping federal funding and eliminate longstanding federal protections and standards for children.

In partnership with The Washington Post, the Kaiser Family Foundation conducted the Survey of Rural America to gauge the views and experiences of people living in small towns and rural areas across the United States, and how they are similar or different from those in urban and suburban settings. This brief explores where health care fits in rural residents’ political views, including attitudes toward Republican plans to repeal and replace the ACA as well as views of Medicaid. It also examines how rural Americans’ health care experiences compare with their urban and suburban counterparts.

This interactive includes a map and tables that highlight the increases in health insurance coverage through Medicaid and the Marketplaces as well as the increased federal funding that resulted from the implementation of the ACA.

As Congress presses forward with efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, a new interactive map from the Kaiser Family Foundation provides a window into the changes in health insurance coverage and financing in each state under the 7-year-old law. The ACA increased enrollment in health insurance by…