Advocacy News: March 2024
Word From Washington Federal Agencies According to the latest KFF Medicaid Unwinding Enrollment Tracker, more than 19 million Americans have lost Medicaid coverage since states were allowed to resume eligibility verifications following the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE). At least 70 percent of Medicaid terminations continue to be for procedural reasons (such as not returning […]
State of the States: Winter 2023
Coverage losses during Medicaid “unwinding” continue to exceed worst fears More than 12.5 million Americans have lost Medicaid coverage nationwide during the “unwinding” of the COVID-era continuous coverage requirements, according to the most recent data released by KFF. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) allowed state Medicaid programs to resume eligibility determinations […]
State of the States: Fall 2023
North Carolina breaks budget impasse over Medicaid expansion Republican lawmakers in North Carolina finally agreed on a two-year budget bill in September, breaking the six-month impasse that prevented the state’s Medicaid expansion from going into effect as scheduled on July 1. Up to 600,000 residents are expected to gain Medicaid once the expansion officially starts, which […]
State of the States: Summer 2023
Three more states act to protect consumers from harmful copay accumulators Legislation ensuring health plan consumers have access to the lifeline that third-party copay assistance provides was signed this quarter by governors in Colorado (S.B. 195), New Mexico (S.B. 51), and Texas (H.B. 999), along with the mayor of the District of Columbia (B.141). The […]
State of the States: Spring 2023
States can resume Medicaid terminations in April, but most are holding back The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has notified state Medicaid programs that the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) will formally end on May 11, 2023. The PHE has been continuously renewed in 90-day increments since first declared by HHS in […]
State of the States: Winter 2022
States win authority to restart Medicaid eligibility determinations in April The omnibus spending legislation passed late in the year by Congress will let states resume Medicaid eligibility determinations in April 2023, even if the Administration decides to continue the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) past that time. The National Association of Medicaid Directors (NAMD) had […]
State of the States: Fall 2022
In this edition of State of the States, South Dakota votes to expand Medicaid, Oregon receives landmark approval to provide continuous Medicaid coverage for young children, and Delaware joins 14 other states in protecting copay assistance for consumers. Midterm elections result in little change in partisan control of state legislatures while states race to prepare for the looming end of the COVID public health emergency and the prospect of mass Medicaid terminations.
State of the States: Summer 2022
Copay accumulator prohibitions advance in several states. Maine and Washington signed new laws this quarter that prohibit health plans from pocketing the third-party assistance intended to help consumers pay for annual cost-sharing obligations. They are the first two states to do so in 2022, bringing the overall total to 14 states (in addition to Puerto […]
State of the States: Spring 2022
Progress slows on state legislation to prohibit harmful copay accumulators After unprecedented success over the past two sessions, legislation to protect people who rely on copay assistance has struggled to gain traction in state legislatures so far this year.A dozen states (and Puerto Rico) already prohibit harmful “copay accumulator adjusters” – an insurer strategy that […]
State of the States: Fall 2021
Prohibiting copay accumulators remains a state priority for 2022 Legislation to prohibit health plans from depriving consumers of any benefit from third-party assistance with cost-sharing obligations has already been pre-filed or drafted in at least a dozen state legislatures for the coming session (as well as the District of Columbia), with pending bills in four […]
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