MEDICAID

A committee of House and Senate members agreed to a plan to extend Medicaid coverage for a year after childbirth — with a controversial anti-abortion amendment attached. The bill now goes to both chambers for a final vote.

New moms will be able to keep their health insurance for a full year under a proposal the Senate passed Sunday. A last-minute anti-abortion amendment means the bill will go back to the House.

Rhode Island Gov. Daniel McKee has signed a bill into law that would let state funds be used to pay for health insurance plans that cover state workers and Medicaid recipients seeking abortions.

Work requirements for federal aid programs have emerged as a sticking point in ongoing negotiations over raising the nation’s debt ceiling, and President Joe Biden has signaled openness to a possible compromise even as many in his party have balked.

The formal end of the national Public Health Emergency on Thursday is largely a symbolic and psychological step, representing the country’s formal emergence from the COVID-19 pandemic.

New mothers could get a full year of Medicaid health-care coverage under legislation given final approval in Missouri.

California lawmakers have agreed to loan $150 million to financially distressed hospitals.

More than half a million of the poorest Americans would be left without health insurance under legislation passed by House Republicans that would require people to work in exchange for health care coverage through Medicaid.

Some Medicaid recipients tell The Associated Press errors and confusion are leading to them being kicked off the federally and state-funded health coverage program.

Texas wants to expand mental health services, but many mental health providers do not accept Medicaid because of its lower payment rate.

New moms would be able to maintain their health insurance for up to a year after childbirth under the proposal, which also passed the House last session. The Senate previously reduced it to just six months of coverage.

President Joe Biden says his administration is expanding eligibility for Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance exchanges to hundreds of thousands of immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children.

California's Medicaid program will continue to pay Walgreens about $1.5 billion each year.

Texas is reviewing the eligibility of people on Medicaid health plans or Healthy Texas Women now that pandemic Medicaid coverage is ending. Here’s what that means, how to renew your health coverage or find other options if you no longer qualify.

Changes to Medicaid enrollment could impact seniors, disabled and pregnant women. Friday, March 31, is the last day to register.

The Republican-controlled North Carolina legislature has given final approval to a Medicaid expansion agreement.

An agreement to expand Medicaid in North Carolina has reached the cusp of final legislative approval following a state House vote.

Medicaid will end for millions of Americans in the coming months, and that pushes many into unfamiliar territory: the health insurance marketplace.

After years of refusing to expand Medicaid benefits for new mothers, Republican officials in more than a half-dozen states are reversing course.

Pregnancy forced Destiny Williams to quit her job. She almost died during childbirth. Now with a newborn in tow, she’s struggling to build a more stable life for her and her children.

Texas largely conducts its state business in English and Spanish. It falls to interpreters like Terry Yun to help people scale the wall dividing them from crucial government services.

President Joe Biden says GOP lawmakers could put millions of people’s health care at risk.

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves is doing an abrupt about-face on an issue Democrats have been hammering him on this election year.

If you get health care coverage through Medicaid, you might be at risk of losing that coverage over the next year.

The Biden administration is planning to reverse longstanding policy and allow the use of Medicaid to treat jail and prison inmates' substance use disorders and certain other health conditions.

A five-year experiment aimed at improving care for some of California's most at-risk Medicaid patients reduced hospitalizations and saved taxpayers money.

Millions of Texans — mostly children, young adults and new moms — stayed on Medicaid for the duration of the pandemic. The state will soon start reevaluating eligibility.

Maryland officials are preparing for as many as 80,000 residents who could no longer qualify for Medicaid coverage this spring.

A newly released report from the Mississippi State Department of Health finds that an increasing number of mothers in the state have died in recent years due to pregnancy complications.

The federal government will allow Medicaid dollars to treat some people in prisons, jails or juvenile detention centers for the first time ever.

The government says a record 16.3 million people sought health insurance through the Affordable Care Act this year.

Millions of people who enrolled in Medicaid during the COVID-19 pandemic could start to lose their insurance plans by April 1 if Congress passes the $1.7 trillion spending package leaders unveiled Tuesday.

A dearth of nurses is leaving Texas seniors — especially in rural areas — without care.

The Supreme Court seems likely to reject a call to overturn decades of precedent and limit the ability of individuals to use federal civil rights law to sue.

More than two-thirds of Texans support Medicaid expansion. But on the eve of the midterm elections, the subject is still taboo for the state GOP. Why?

Former Vice President Mike Pence is supporting Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp as he makes his closing argument Tuesday for a second term over Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams.

Texas ranks last among states in access to health care and has the highest rate of uninsured people in the country. Two longtime doctors in rural Henderson County created a homegrown safety net to fill the gap.

States around the country are making it easier for newborn moms to keep Medicaid in the year after childbirth, a crucial time when depression and other health problems can develop.

Summer is almost over, and now is the time to ensure students are safe, healthy, and back-to-school ready.

On this week’s episode, Matthew speaks with Jolie about the problems within the Texas Juvenile Justice Department and with Eleanor about the state’s efforts to expand postnatal Medicaid.

HHSC said it was initially told the plan was “not approvable.” Federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued a statement Friday saying Texas’ plan to extend coverage to six months was not rejected but still under review.

A deal on Medicaid expansion in North Carolina is within reach after both legislative chambers passed competing measures before ending their annual session.

During the Public Health Emergency (PHE), millions of Americans have benefited from continuous and uninterrupted Medicaid or CHIP coverage. Soon the PHE will end, and Medicaid and CHIP recipients will need to take action to keep their Texas health care benefits.

The Biden administration is warning pharmacies not to discriminate against women who may seek reproductive health prescriptions, including some that might be involved in ending a pregnancy.

California will be the first state to guarantee free health care for all low-income immigrants who are living in the country illegally.

The owner of seven Louisiana nursing homes whose residents suffered in squalid conditions after being evacuated to a warehouse for Hurricane Ida has been arrested.

The federal emergency declaration is expected to last through at least mid-October and has kept states from dropping people from Medicaid rolls.

Debate over the waiver was key to the federal government’s push for Texas to expand Medicaid for more working poor.

A major report says American nursing home residents are subjected to ineffective care and poor staffing, and that facility finances are shrouded in secrecy and regulatory lapses go unenforced.

When the end of the COVID-19 pandemic comes, it could create major disruptions for U.S. health care.

Texas got a temporary reprieve on Medicaid funding from the federal government. But that won’t solve underlying problems with high numbers of uninsured Texans and the plight of hospitals in the state — especially those in rural areas.

The good news is that no rural hospitals in Texas have closed in the last two years. The bad news? They’re still in crisis mode, and the state government is still struggling to find a remedy.

The money reimburses hospitals for the services they provide to Medicaid patients in Texas.

Texas, unlike all but 11 other states, hasn’t expanded its Medicaid program. And it also hasn’t addressed the problem that’s supposed to help solve: The state’s worst-in-the-nation ranking for people without health insurance.

COVID-19 numbers are plummeting statewide, but on Texas’ southern border with Mexico, Laredo is still battling its fourth surge.

President Joe Biden says 14.5 million Americans got private health insurance for this year under the Obama-era health law, thanks to help from his administration.

Attorney General Ken Paxton is seeking to claw back Medicaid payments made during the three years that Planned Parenthood was fighting in court to remain as a qualified health care provider.

A government report says U.S. health care spending rocketed to $4.1 trillion last year as Congress opened the spigot of federal dollars to battle the coronavirus pandemic across multiple fronts.

At least 770,000 Texans are ineligible for both Medicaid and health insurance subsidies through the state-run marketplaces.

Medicaid issues are turning up as winners in President Joe Biden’s social budget framework even as divisions force Democrats to hit pause on far-reaching improvements to Medicare.

The political organization led by prominent Democrat Stacey Abrams is branching out into paying off medical debts.

Considering getting braces this fall for the kids or even for yourself?

The Democrats’ social spending and climate change bill would put the United States back on a path to reducing its persistent pool of uninsured people.

Democrats are fretting about how they’d divide a shrinking pie amid signs that negotiations over President Joe Biden’s massive domestic policy bill could yield a smaller serving of health care spending.

House Democrats said Friday they planned to take action next week to suspend the cap on the government’s borrowing authority.

President Joe Biden says nearly 3 million consumers took advantage of a special six-month period to sign up for subsidized health insurance coverage made more affordable by his COVID-19 relief law.

The law, which takes effect Sept. 1, gives new mothers six months of postpartum Medicaid coverage instead of two. That’s less than many advocates and some lawmakers wanted.

California may become the first state to pay drug addicts to stay sober.

The agreement was set to expire next year after federal health officials rescinded the Trump administration's 10-year extension to the 1115 waiver agreement.

Connecticut has become the latest state to mandate that workers in nursing homes be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Kids will be heading back to school soon, and the fall allergy, cold and flu season won’t be far behind, but there are health care options with Medicaid to ensure that families will be taken care of.

Illinois is leading a handful of Democratic-run states in extending health insurance coverage to adult immigrants living in the country illegally, including seniors.

Get your child up to date on required vaccines and well-child visits before the end-of-summer rush.

Three Democratic U.S. senators from states that have refused to expand Medicaid want the federal government to set up a mirror plan to provide health insurance coverage to people in those states.

A physician’s assistant in San Antonio has pleaded guilty to Medicaid and Medicare fraud and could face up to 20 years in prison.

The bill would let counties and cities apply to the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for funds that were declined by their states.

The bill would add an extra four months of health insurance for low-income women, who now get Medicaid coverage from pregnancy until two months after delivery. It now heads to Gov. Greg Abbott for signature.

Maternal health advocates said the bill — originally pitched as a one-year extension — could reduce the state’s maternal mortality rate and offer vital help to mothers grappling with conditions like postpartum depression or health complications in the months after giving birth.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration over its decision to rescind the Trump administration's extension of the so-called 1115 waiver.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s lawsuit, filed Friday, argues that the Trump-era extension of the federal 1115 Medicaid funding waiver was lawful and that overturning it was a political move.

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson has dropped plans to expand the state's Medicaid program after the Legislature declined to provide money for a measure approved by voters.

Texas has the highest rate of uninsured residents in the nation.

President Joe Biden has proposed a major expansion of the government’s role in long-term care, but questions are being raised over his use of the low-income Medicaid program and piggybacking the whole idea on an infrastructure bill.

The government says more than a half million Americans have already taken advantage of the Biden administration’s special health insurance sign-up window that's keyed to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now, the COVID-19 relief bill is offering states a generous funding boost for home- and community-based care as an alternative to institutionalizing disabled people. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)WASHINGTON – With the memory of the pandemic's toll in nursing homes still raw, the COVID-19 relief law is offering states a generous funding boost for home- and community-based care as an alternative to institutionalizing disabled people. As it has grown to cover about 1 in 5 Americans, it's also become the nation's default long-term care program, although qualifying is often an arduous process. While the federal government requires state Medicaid programs to cover nursing home care for low-income people, that's not the case for home- and community-based support services. For now, states and advocates for the disabled are awaiting guidance from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on how the money in the COVID-19 law can be spent.

Henry McMaster remains firmly opposed to the Medicaid expansion. The bump in federal funding would last two years for the states that join the Medicaid expansion. Laura Kelley this year called for legalizing medical use of marijuana and using the tax revenue to pay for expanding Medicaid. "It’s a nonstarter, and we will continue to oppose the liberal wish list item of Medicaid expansion,” he said. Kay Ivey left open the possibility of expanding Medicaid at some point in the future, but there are no plans to do so.

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court said Thursday it has called off upcoming arguments over a Trump administration plan to remake Medicaid by requiring recipients to work, agreeing to a request from the Biden administration. But the Biden administration already has decided preliminarily that work requirements do not fit with Medicaid's goal of providing health care to lower-income people. AdOther cases involved Trump administration immigration policies and a fight over unreleased portions of grand jury documents from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 elections. The high court had in December agreed to review lower-court decisions involving Arkansas and New Hampshire that found that the Trump administration’s support for work requirements went beyond what’s allowed by law. Arkansas had opposed the Biden administration’s request that the cases be dropped.

Labor and delivery are thought of as the riskiest times for new mothers, but many women die in the months after giving birth. The legislation gives states the option of extending Medicaid coverage to women with low to modest incomes for a full year after childbirth. Maternal health advisory groups in 19 states, from Texas to Massachusetts, and Washington to Tennessee, have recommended such an extension. AdSome Republicans who disdain the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package say they would like to see the maternal health provisions made permanent. “We must strive to improve maternal health outcomes and reduce maternal mortality,” said Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas, who cosponsored legislation with Kelly, the Chicago Democrat, in the last Congress.

Planned Parenthood cannot stop Texas officials from kicking it out of the state's Medicaid program, a state district judge ruled Wednesday. The decision is the latest in Texas officials’ years-long effort to cut off Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood. A state district judge granted a temporary restraining order on Feb. 3, delaying the state from kicking Planned Parenthood out of Medicaid. The 2016 notice of termination never took effect, he said; Planned Parenthood has continued to treat Medicaid patients. Abbott, in a tweet deemed “false” by Politifact, has said “innocent lives will be saved” by ending taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood.

WASHINGTON – The Biden administration is asking the Supreme Court not to hear arguments in two cases on its March calendar about the Trump administration's plan to remake Medicaid by requiring recipients to work. The Biden administration has been moving to roll back those Trump-era plans and cited “greatly changed circumstances” in asking Monday that the cases be dropped from the court's argument calendar. The high court had in December agreed to review lower-court decisions involving Arkansas and New Hampshire that found that the Trump administration’s support for work requirements went beyond what’s allowed by law. Medicaid is a $600 billion federal-state program that covers about 70 million people, from pregnant women and newborns to disabled people and nursing home residents. Under the Obama-era Affordable Care Act, states gained the option of expanding the program to many low-income adults previously ineligible.

(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)WASHINGTON – The Biden administration is moving to roll back Medicaid work requirements in its latest effort to undo a controversial Trump-era policy. Federal health officials planned Friday to inform 10 states that they would revoke permissions granted by the Trump administration to impose such requirements, according to a Biden official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal plans. Officials were also set to withdraw the past administration’s invitation for states to apply for approval for work requirements. AdThe Trump administration allowed states to require “able-bodied” adults drawing Medicaid benefits to work, volunteer or study. Before the pandemic, nearly 20 states had tried to implement requirements after the administration invited them in 2018 to submit such proposals.

Greg Abbott to reverse a yearslong effort to boot Planned Parenthood from the state’s Medicaid program, saying it jeopardizes thousands of low-income Texans’ ability to access nonabortion health services. Their plea comes just days after a state district judge temporarily stopped the state from excluding Planned Parenthood from Medicaid, a government health insurance program for the poor. Planned Parenthood has donated fetal tissue for research, which is legal. State health officials granted a 30-day grace period that was slated to end Feb. 3. Escobar and the other congress members have asked Abbott to allow Planned Parenthood to remain as a provider.

Planned Parenthood on Wednesday said it filed an emergency lawsuit to stop Texas from kicking it out of Medicaid, in a last ditch effort to keep providing non-abortion services to some 8,000 low-income patients. AdIn Texas, Medicaid primarily provides health insurance for children, and those who have a disability, are pregnant or are parents. Planned Parenthood on Wednesday said it filed an emergency lawsuit to stop Texas from kicking it out of Medicaid, in a last ditch effort to keep providing non-abortion services to some 8,000 low-income patients. AdIn Texas, Medicaid primarily provides health insurance for children, and those disabled, pregnant or who are parents. A lower court blocked the state from removing Planned Parenthood from Medicaid in 2017.

Texas has millions of uninsured residents, many of whom might at least be covered under Medicaid in other states. Anne Dunkelberg, the associate director for the policy institute “Every Texan,” says that, in its current form, Texas Medicaid mainly covers children. Medicaid is also available for Texas parents, but only if they earn less than a few hundred dollars a month. With factors like those possible savings and the general strain on Texans caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Dunkelberg thinks this could be the best shot Medicaid expansion has at passing since 2010. “If you’re asking me to forecast the Texas legislature, I don’t think there is a wizard or sorcerer in history that could do that,” Nirenberg said.