News
Senate GOP effort to shield disabled from Medicaid changes would leave many kids on the outside
by Jordan Rau
07.09.17 Aidan Long is a 13-year-old in Kalispell, Mont., who has suffered seizures nearly every day for a decade. These episodes defy medical cure, and some of them continue for weeks, requiring Aidan to be airlifted to children's hospitals in Denver or Seattle. The medical bills, covered in large part by Medicaid, have been enormous. "I kept track of these until about 2 million bucks," recalls his father, Ben Long, "and then I said I can't spend any more time worrying about it." But Senate Republican… Continue Reading
Senate’s Healthcare Bill Could Be Catastrophic
by Rep. Frederica Wilson (FL-24)
07.07.17 In 1961, the Republican Party's standard bearer Ronald Reagan said that no one should go without healthcare for lack of funds. Fast forward to 2017 and his self-described acolytes are threatening the health and well-being of millions of Americans. If Reagan were alive today, I daresay he would agree with the not-so Grand Old Party's new leader, President Donald J. Trump, that much like the House's American Health Care Act, the Senate's Better Care Reconciliation Act is both mean and lacks hear… Continue Reading
For Millions, Life Without Medicaid Services Is No Option
by Abby Goodnough
07.01.17 Frances Isbell has spinal muscular atrophy, a genetic disorder that has left her unable to walk or even roll over in bed. But Ms. Isbell has a personal care assistant through Medicaid, and the help allowed her to go to law school at the University of Alabama here. She will graduate next month. She hopes to become a disability rights lawyer - "I'd love to see her on the Supreme Court someday," her aide, Christy Robertson, said, tearing up with emotion as Ms. Isbell prepared to study for the bar … Continue Reading
The forgotten Medicaid recipients
by Jenny Deam
07.01.17 Roshaunda Jones was standing in line at the bank a few weeks ago, trying to ignore what she was hearing. "These people, they don't want to work. They're lazy," loudly declared one of the older women in front of Jones. "They've always got their hand out. They have all these babies and then they want to government to do everything for them," agreed the second woman in disgust. That did it. "Excuse me, ma'am," said Jones, a 38-year-old single Houston mother of three. "I'm one of those people wh… Continue Reading
Americans watch a health-care bill that could upend many lives again
by Sandhya Somashekhar, Laurie McGinley, Lena H. Sun and Lenny Bernstein
06.29.17 Millions of Americans of all ages and needs would be affected if Republicans in Congress succeed in overhauling major parts of the Affordable Care Act. And the latest maneuvering is only intensifying concerns. But with Senate GOP leaders trying to retool parts of their bill - which was pulled back this week after support for a fast vote eroded - it isn't easy sussing out exactly how an individual might benefit or lose. Would an uninsured home-care worker in Ohio get a tax credit that would make… Continue Reading
Medicaid cuts in Senate bill could have dire effects at Ohio opioid clinic
by Adriana Diaz
06.29.17 For the last 15 months, 33-year-old Eric Hinman has been coming to Oriana House, a drug treatment center, to help end an opioid addiction that could kill him. "You go from feeling dope sick to wanting to kill yourself to living life again," he said. Hinman and Leah Cohen, also a recovering heroin addict, credit their progress to counseling and monthly injections of a drug called Vivitrol, which costs $1,200 a dose. They get it for free because, like 2,500 other patients there, they qualify for… Continue Reading
Children with special needs suffer due to Medicaid cuts
06.28.17 Stacey English has modest desires for her 7-year-old daughter, Addison: Be able to eat without gagging and move both her arms. But since Addison's occupational therapist went out of business this winter, the child with a rare genetic disorder has regressed in her fight to do even that much. "I don't know where to go from here," said English, who has been unable to find a replacement therapist in their Texas college town of College Station. "How do you continue to help her make progress when … Continue Reading
GOP health-care bill could strip public schools of billions for special education
by Emma Brown
06.28.17 School superintendents across the country are raising alarms about the possibility that Republican health care legislation would curtail billions of dollars in annual funding they count on to help students with disabilities and poor children. For the past three decades, Medicaid has helped pay for services and equipment that schools provide to special-education students, as well as school-based health screening and treatment for children from low-income families. Now, educators from rural red s… Continue Reading
Black girls are seen as 'less innocent' than white girls, study finds
by Sydney C. Greene
06.27.17 Adults perceive black girls as less innocent and more adult-like than white ones, a new study found. The Georgetown Law report, Girlhood Interrupted: The Erasure of Black Girls' Childhood, expands on a 2014 study on adult perceptions of black boys. But the new study differs in how it examines adults' views of black girls and innocence. "What we found is that adults see black girls as less innocent and less in need of protection as white girls of the same age," Rebecca Epstein, lead author of… Continue Reading
After fighting for her daughter's life, mom fears GOP health care bill
by Elizabeth Cohen
06.27.17 She's a 35-pound bundle of blonde cuteness with hard-working parents. "We're not deadbeats," said Rebecca Wood, 38, who lives with her husband and daughter in Charlottesville, Virginia. Wood has a message for Republican lawmakers in Washington who have proposed dramatic cuts to Medicaid: Families like hers are deserving and need help, not slashed funding. Wood's daughter, Charlie, was born more than three months early, weighing just one pound and 12 ounces. While she's now 5 years old a… Continue Reading
Coverage Losses by State for the Senate Health Care Repeal Bill
by Emily Gee
06.27.17 The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has released its score of the Senate's health care repeal plan, showing that the bill would eliminate coverage for 15 million Americans next year and for 22 million by 2026. The CBO projects that the Senate bill would slash Medicaid funding by $772 billion over the next decade; increase individual market premiums by 20 percent next year; and make comprehensive coverage "extremely expensive" in some markets. The score, released by Congress' nonpartisan budge… Continue Reading
The Senate's New Health Care Bill Makes It More Expensive to Be a Woman
by Alicia Adamczyk
06.23.17 The Better Care Reconciliation Act, introduced Thursday by Senate Republicans to replace the Affordable Care Act, would both increase pregnancy costs for women, and increase the cost of not getting pregnant. How does the bill manage such a feat? It defunds Planned Parenthood-which provides family planning and birth control for millions of low income women for one year. It also prohibits federal tax subsidies from paying for individual market plans that cover abortion. That means fewer women wil… Continue Reading
Senate health-care draft repeals Obamacare taxes, provides bigger subsidies for low-income Americans than House bill
by Paige Winfield Cunningham
06.21.17 Senate leaders on Wednesday were putting the final touches on legislation that would reshape a big piece of the U.S. health-care system by dramatically rolling back Medicaid while easing the impact on Americans who stand to lose coverage under a new bill. A discussion draft circulating Wednesday afternoon among aides and lobbyists would roll back the Affordable Care Act's taxes, phase down its Medicaid expansion, rejigger its subsidies, give states wider latitude in opting out of its regulation… Continue Reading
Senate Repeal Bill Would Still Eviscerate Coverage and Protections for People with Pre-Existing Conditions
by Thomas Huelskoetter
06.09.17 Recent reports indicate that the emerging Senate version of the American Health Care Act (AHCA) may not include the House version's provision permitting states to waive the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) community rating provision, which prevents insurers from charging sick people higher premiums than healthy people. Even without community rating waivers, the Senate bill would still critically weaken protections for people with pre-existing conditions. By allowing states to waive the ACA's essenti… Continue Reading
School Suspensions, Test Scores, and Lead Poisoning
by Rachel M. Cohen
06.09.17 Over the past several years, education advocates and civil rights groups have been sounding the alarm on the harms of exclusionary school discipline policies. Critics say these punishments-suspensions, expulsions, and school-based arrests-are increasingly doled out for minor infractions, and disproportionately given to students of color. A National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) working paper published in May adds a new wrinkle to the debate on disparities in school discipline: Economists f… Continue Reading
Rural Florida Hit Hardest By Trump Medicaid Cuts
by Jim Ash
06.08.17 President Donald Trump's plan to slash billions of dollars from Medicaid would hit small town America hardest, especially in Florida, according to a new Georgetown study. The report shows 57 percent of Florida's rural and small-town children receive health insurance through Medicaid versus 44 percent of their urban counterparts. Researcher Joan Alker says the numbers should correct any misconceptions of Medicaid as a big-city program. "What's so I think eye-popping about this research is ju… Continue Reading
N.J. bill for Medicaid would soar by $810M under Trump Obamacare repeal
by Jonathan D. Salant
06.07.17 WASHINGTON -- New Jersey taxpayers would have to pay an extra $810 million to cover the 560,000 residents now receiving health care under the Medicaid expansion that the House Republican legislation would repeal, according to a new study. That would increase the state's costs by 227 percent in 2021 over current levels, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a progressive research group in Washington. Should the state not pick up the extra costs, about 374,000 New Jerseyans wo… Continue Reading
Repealing Medicaid expansion could hit Colorado budget especially hard, study finds
by John Ingold
06.06.17 Colorado could be on the hook for spending close to $700 million more per year by 2023 if the federal government does away with its enhanced contribution to the Medicaid expansion, according to a new report released Tuesday. The report, from the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, found that Colorado could be one of the states most impacted by the repeal of Medicaid expansion that is proposed in the U.S. House of Representative's version of the GOP health care bill. That's beca… Continue Reading
Wisconsin Family Stays Together With Help From Medicaid
by Alison Kodjak
06.05.17 Nancy and Dan Gapinski of Glendale, Wis., remember a time when they couldn't really communicate with their own son. "He used to not really have any kinds of conversations with us. He did a lot of echoing things that we said, and scripting from movies," Nancy Gapinski says as she and her husband wait for their son Ben's school bus to arrive. "A lot of times kids didn't know how to respond to him then, and didn't know what he was trying to say and conversations wouldn't really go anywhere." But … Continue Reading
It's been 10 years since Congress raised the minimum wage
by Julia Horowitz
05.25.17 Congress hasn't raised the federal minimum wage in 10 years. Democrats on Capitol Hill decided to mark the occasion by introducing a bill that probably won't pass. On Thursday, Congressional Democrats, with the support of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, introduced legislation that would raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 an hour by 2024. "If you work 40 hours a week or 50 hours a week, you should not be living in poverty," Sen. Bernie … Continue Reading