State steps up health care coverage for kids, By Deborah Barfield Berry, January 18, 2012, Montgomery Advertiser: “Alabama’s successful efforts to increase the number of children with health care coverage has made it a standout in the region, according to a national study released Wednesday. The study by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured lists Alabama among four states that are regional leaders in making gains in children’s health care. The others are Iowa, Massachusetts and Oregon. Alabama recognizes the importance of health care coverage for kids, said Trisha Brooks, a co-author of the report and a senior fellow at the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families…”

State efforts put more children on health insurance rolls, despite economic downturn, By N.C. Aizenman, December 27, 2011, Washington Post: “Publicly funded programs have enabled 1.2 million more children to gain health insurance since 2008 - at least in part due to extra work by many states to ensure that more of the children who are eligible for the programs are actually signed up, Obama administration officials plan to announce Wednesday. Twenty-three states are to be awarded federal performance bonuses totaling nearly $300 million for these efforts. Maryland and Virginia have qualified for the two largest amounts - $28.3 million and $26.7 million, respectively - under an incentive plan aimed at improving child enrollment rates in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP…”

• Study: Even with more kids in poverty, number of uninsured children fell 14% over 3 years, Associated Press, November 29, 2011, Washington Post: “Even with more children living in poverty because of the rough economy, the number of children without health insurance in the U.S. has dropped by 1 million in the past three years, according to a report released Tuesday by Georgetown University. Many states have expanded eligibility for, and simplified access to, the children’s Medicaid program. This has helped shrink the number of uninsured children from 6.9 million in 2008 to 5.9 million in 2010. Experts say the Affordable Care Act, the federal health care overhaul that requires states to maintain income eligibility levels and discourages other barriers to coverage, has played a key role in the improvement…”
• Safety-net programs insure more Texas children, By Todd Ackerman, November 29, 2011, Houston Chronicle: “Houston-area children’s health insurance is increasingly being provided by government safety-net programs as employers cut jobs and benefits, according to a new study. The survey, sponsored by Texas Children’s Hospital, found that in the last three years, area children’s enrollment in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program doubled as coverage through work-based plans decreased significantly. This shift comes in a state known for not embracing government health programs…”
• Number of uninsured Minnesota kids climbs, By Jeremy Olson, November 29, 2011, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune: “The number of children without health insurance rose sharply in the past two years in Minnesota, making it the only state to see a significant increase since 2008, according to a report released Tuesday. Uninsured Minnesota kids totaled 84,000, although that number could fall again as a result of changes enacted by the Legislature in 2009. The uninsured rate rose from 5.8 to 6.6 percent. While Minnesota’s rate remains better than the national average of 8 percent, the state is no longer among the nation’s best…”
• Utah lags behind other states in covering kids, By Kirsten Stewart, November 29, 2011, Salt Lake Tribune: “Even as unemployment and child poverty has grown, the uninsured rate for children nationally - and in Utah - has shrunk, an analysis of census data shows. From 2008 to 2010 the number of American children living in poverty rose 19 percent, while the number of uninsured children fell 14 percent, according to a report released Tuesday by Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families. How, given the high cost of health care, is this possible? Two words, say Georgetown researchers: Medicaid and CHIP, the Children’s Health Insurance Program…”

Number of AZ children enrolled in KidsCare drops, By Max Levy, August 31, 2011, Houston Chronicle: “The number of children enrolled in a state-federal health insurance program for youth on the brink of poverty has plummeted from a peak of 66,317 in May 2008 to 16,662 this month, the lowest level since 1999. The drop comes as demand for the program is going strong: In July, more than 100,000 children were on the waiting list for KidsCare, the state’s version of the federally sponsored Children’s Health Insurance Program. More than half of the decline has come since Jan. 1, 2010, when the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System froze enrollment in KidsCare in response to a lack of funding, according to its website…”

• State proposes increases in Medicaid co-pays, By Misty Williams, July 14, 2011, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Children could be among the hardest hit by proposed increases in co-pays for Medicaid enrollees and the creation of co-pays for families in the state’s PeachCare for Kids health care program starting this fall. A plan to double existing co-pays for inpatient hospital services to $25 is also among the changes proposed by the Georgia Department of Community Health that would save the state an estimated $4.2 million. Co-pays for prescription drugs, vision care and other services would also climb under the plan outlined at a department board meeting Thursday. Children ages 6 and older enrolled in PeachCare would be the most dramatically affected by the changes, which would take effect Sept. 1, since those families don’t currently have co-pays, said Jerry Dubberly, the state’s Medicaid division chief. PeachCare provides health care to more than 200,000 children through age 18 who don’t qualify for Medicaid and have family incomes up to 235 percent of the federal poverty level…”
• Fewer Utah doctors to treat Medicaid patients, By Kirsten Stewart, July 10, 2011, Salt Lake Tribune: “When people ask family practitioner Ray Ward if he does charity care, he likes to joke, ‘Yes, I take Medicaid.’ It means making less money, but the Bountiful doctor does it out of a sense of duty. ‘I still come out OK at the end of the year,’ he says. ‘So far, I haven’t had to turn anyone away. I still accept [Medicaid] patients.’ Physicians like Ward, however, are in increasingly short supply. In Utah the number of doctors who accept Medicaid has shrunk 25 percent in 11 years. This year, 3,166 doctors are certified to bill the low-income health program, down from 4,210 in 2000. That’s just over half of the state’s 5,844 practicing physicians. Meanwhile, Medicaid enrollment, now at about 244,470, is swelling with no immediate end in sight…”

• Study shows Medicaid kids are denied medical care, By Lindsey Tanner (AP), June 16, 2011, USA Today: “Children on public insurance are being denied treatment by doctors at much higher rates than those with private coverage, according to an undercover study that had researchers pose as parents of sick kids seeking an appointment with a specialist. Snubbed even by specialists whose offices supposedly accept public insurance patients, these kids also had to wait much longer to see a doctor. Low Medicaid reimbursements are the likely reason, the study authors said. The study was done in Cook County, Ill., the nation’s second-most populous county which includes Chicago, but the researchers and others say the results likely reflect practices around the country…”
• Penn study finds doctors delaying or rejecting specialty care for publicly insured children, By Marie McCullough, June 16, 2011, Philadelphia Inquirer: “A University of Pennsylvania study in which callers posed as mothers seeking pediatric specialty care found that two-thirds of publicly insured children were refused a doctor’s appointment, compared with only 11 percent of privately insured children. Even the low-income children who were not rejected had to wait an average of 42 days for appointments for urgent conditions such as diabetes, seizures, asthma, or a bone fracture - 22 days longer on average than children with private insurance…”

• Vermont health plan advances, By Janet Adamy, May 25, 2011, Wall Street Journal: “Vermont is moving one step closer to a goal of its Democratic governor: a state-run health plan that would insure most of its 625,000 residents. The bill Gov. Peter Shumlin plans to sign on Thursday would create a panel whose goal would be to figure out how to pay for a new system intended to reduce the rate of overall health-cost increases. The challenge is to figure out how to finance such a system and convince the federal government to allow the experiment to proceed as soon as 2017. It’s far from clear Vermont can make it all work…”
• Hickenlooper vetoes bill raising premiums for some in Colorado health program, By Lynn Bartels, June 1, 2011, Denver Post: “Gov. John Hickenlooper issued his first veto Tuesday, nixing a measure that would have required certain parents whose children are enrolled in a state health care plan to pay higher premiums. Hickenlooper said Senate Bill 213 would have increased premium costs a ‘dramatic’ 1,000 percent, possibly pushing as many as 2,500 kids out of a program intended to help those struggling financially. Various groups, including the Colorado Children’s Campaign and Colorado Consumer Health Initiative, hailed the veto, as did several Democratic lawmakers. But Republicans said the Democratic governor missed his chance at entitlement reform…”

• GOP: Feds should let states tighten Medicaid eligibility, By Mary Agnes Carey and Phil Galewitz, May 24, 2011, Miami Herald: “With their proposal to turn Medicaid into block grants all but dead, Republicans are pushing legislation to let states tighten eligibility rules for the health program for poor people and those with disabilities. The move, which would affect Medicaid as well as the Children’s Health Insurance Program, would help cash-strapped states save money, but it also could cause hundreds of thousands of people to lose health coverage. While Democrats strenuously oppose the proposed Medicaid change, some advocates and physicians groups worry that the issue could wind up as a bargaining chip in the partisan wrangling over raising the federal debt limit and reducing the budget deficit…”
• Christie eyes curb on Medicaid rolls, By Matt Katz and Maya Rao, May 23, 2011, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Gov. Christie plans to seek approval for a proposal that would deny Medicaid coverage to adults in a family of four with an annual household income of little more than $6,000, down from the current $30,000. A single mother raising three children who earned as little as $118 a week would not qualify for the government-funded medical coverage. The eligibility-requirement change, which must be cleared by the Obama administration and would apply only to new adult Medicaid applicants, would follow Christie’s eliminating - for the second year - a long-standing line item that would provide nearly $7.5 million in funding to family-planning clinics…”
• State drops managed-care Medicaid plan for 5 counties, By Charles S. Johnson, May 23, 2011, Billings Gazette: “The Schweitzer administration has abandoned its controversial plan to set up a Medicaid managed-care demonstration project in Lewis and Clark, Cascade, Choteau, Teton and Judith Basin counties. The Gazette State Bureau reported last fall that the Schweitzer administration since August 2009 had discussed using managed-card Medicaid, the state-federal program that provides health care for the poor and disabled. One major proposal came from Centene Corp., a large managed-care firm based in St. Louis. It was based on the idea that the private company would be paid a certain amount of money for each patient and ‘manage’ that patient’s care by directing him or her to lower-cost health care. That, in turn, was supposed to save money for both the state and the company.
  By last week, the state pulled the plug on the idea…”
• U.S. objects to new law on clinics in Indiana, By Robert Pear, May 22, 2011, New York Times: “The Obama administration is raising serious objections to a new Indiana law that cuts off state and federal money for Planned Parenthood clinics providing health care to low-income women on Medicaid. The objections set the stage for a clash between the White House and Gov. Mitch Daniels, a Republican, over an issue that ignites passions in both parties. The changes in Indiana are subject to federal review and approval, and administration officials have made it clear they will not approve the changes in the form adopted by the state. Federal officials have 90 days to act but may feel pressure to act sooner because Indiana is already enforcing its law, which took effect on May 10, and because legislators in other states are working on similar measures…”

• Healthcare safety nets kept intact with help from Washington, By Noam N. Levey, January 12, 2011, Los Angeles Times: “Bolstered by billions of dollars in aid from Washington, states managed to hold their healthcare safety nets together last year despite the fallout from the recession, a new survey shows. Several states actually expanded coverage for poor children and adults, using Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program to prevent more Americans from losing insurance in the economic downturn, according to the report by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured. Now, however, with emergency federal aid scheduled to end this year, it is unclear how much longer financially strained states will be able to head off cutbacks. Republican governors, many of whom have criticized the new healthcare law’s dependence on Medicaid to guarantee all Americans coverage, are pushing the Obama administration for permission to cut their programs…”
• Feds helped states sustain Medicaid, By Catherine Candisky, January 12, 2011, Columbus Dispatch: “Almost no state threw people out of its tax-funded Medicaid program last year, a new report found. In fact, more than half made it easier for qualified poor and disabled residents to enroll, blunting a spike in the ranks of the uninsured despite the recession and tight state budgets. Ohio was among both groups. A big reason: Billions in added federal aid to states were contingent on them not dropping Medicaid recipients, the annual survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation found. The report comes just four days after Ohio Gov. John Kasich and 32 other Republican governors sent a letter to President Barack Obama and congressional leaders urging them to allow states to cut Medicaid without risking federal cuts. Ohio is facing a projected $8 billion shortfall in its next two-year state budget as state Medicaid rolls have reached 2 million, including 1 in 3 children. A few states, including Texas, have suggested eliminating Medicaid entirely…”
• Coverage for millions - especially kids - at stake in governors’ request, By Jim Saunders, January 11, 2011, Miami Herald: “Florida Gov. Rick Scott and other Republican governors are asking the federal government to give them more power to trim Medicaid eligibility to help control costs. But a report released today has a different take on the situation: It credits federal requirements with helping avoid cutbacks in Medicaid and children’s health programs, as states have dealt with huge budget shortfalls during the past year. ‘Keeping these programs stable and strong has helped protect children and avoid an even larger increase in the nation’s 50 million uninsured and will be key to ensuring the success of health-reform implementation over the next few years,’ Diane Rowland, executive vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, said in prepared statement. The report, released by the foundation’s Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, found that eligibility and enrollment requirements remained the same or improved in almost every state during 2010 in the Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program…”

Medicaid bonuses to reward states for insuring more children, By Kevin Sack, December 27, 2010, Washington Post: “The Obama administration plans to announce Monday that it will make $206 million in bonus Medicaid payments to 15 states - with more than a fourth of the total going to Alabama - for signing up children who are eligible for public health insurance but had previously failed to enroll. The payments, which were established when Congress and President Obama reauthorized the Children’s Health Insurance Program in 2009, are aimed at one of the most persistent frustrations in government health care: the inability to enroll an estimated 4.7 million children who would be eligible for subsidized coverage if their families could be found and alerted. Two of every three uninsured children are thought to meet the income criteria for government insurance programs…”

• Number of uninsured U.S. adults hits record high, By Steven Reinberg, November 10, 2010, USA Today: “Nearly 50 million Americans have gone without health insurance for at least part of the past year - up from 46 million people in 2008, federal health officials reported Tuesday. Those people included not only those Americans living in poverty, but an increasing number of middle-income people, according to a report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ‘The bottom line is that uninsurance of young and middle-class adults increased by 4 million people from 2008 to the first quarter of 2010,’ CDC Director Dr. Thomas R. Frieden said during a news conference Tuesday. What’s more, the number of people without insurance for a year or more increased from 27.5 million in 2008 to 30.4 million in the first quarter of 2010, Frieden said. ‘That’s an increase of 3 million of chronically uninsured adults…’”
• Report: 59 million Americans lack health care, By Joshua Norman, November 10, 2010, CBS News: “More than 59 million Americans had no health insurance for at least part of 2010, an increase of 4 million from the previous year, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control reported Tuesday. While the worsening economic conditions did have a direct impact on the number of Americans with coverage, the situation also meant that a far greater number of Americans are forgoing needed medical care because of costs…”

• Some insured kids miss proper health care due to costs, By Jenifer Goodwin, October 7, 2010, USA Today: “About 13% of parents with health insurance say they haven’t gotten pediatrician-recommended care for their children due to costs, a new survey in Ohio finds. Parents of kids covered by private health insurance were more likely than those with public health insurance such as Medicaid or the State Children’s Health Insurance Program to report forgoing care such as seeing a recommended specialist, filling a prescription or getting a lab test because of difficulty paying for it. In the survey, about 61% of parents had children covered by private insurance while about 39% had public insurance. Researchers queried 1,978 parents at pediatricians’ offices in the summer of 2009 in three counties in Ohio about their income, type of insurance and ability to access medical care for their children…”
• Government helps to insure children, even above the poverty line, By Lesley Alderman, October 8, 2010, New York Times: “The last few years have not been easy for Dean McCrea. In 2007, Mr. McCrea, 55, lost his wife of nearly 30 years. Then last November the company he worked for folded, and he could not afford to pay the steep Cobra premiums required to keep health insurance for him and his son, Henry, 16. Mr. McCrea, a media producer in Portland, Ore., receives $380 a week in unemployment benefits, which barely covers his mortgage; Henry receives a small stipend from Social Security each month. ‘The last years have been a constant navigation of what feels like Class 5 rapids,’ he said. In June, Mr. McCrea’s luck turned, a little. He learned about Healthy Kids, the state’s health insurance program for middle-class families, and promptly enrolled his son. The program provides Henry with full health coverage, including vision and dental. The cost: $38 a month. ‘A lot of people in my circle, solid middle-class families, are struggling,’ Mr. McCrea said. ‘The peace of mind that this program has supplied me is not measurable.’ Government health insurance for children is no longer available only for the poorest households. Now middle-class families like the McCreas, struggling through the recession, can benefit as well. The Census Bureau recently reported that the poverty rate was up, and the number of insured adults was down. But the news was brighter for children. The percentage of children under age 19 with insurance edged up to 91 percent last year, a record high, from 90.3 percent in 2008…”

Poor economy, better outreach means more kids enrolled in KidCare, By Richard Martin, September 13, 2010, St. Petersburg Times: “Fifteen months after Gov. Charlie Crist signed a law making it easier for low-income families to get health insurance for their children, more people are doing just that. Enrollment in the state’s KidCare program has increased more than 15 percent since then. The increase is coming in all parts of KidCare; children’s Medicaid, for the poorest families, now has more than 1.5 million enrollees. More than 255,000 are enrolled in the three levels of SCHIP (State Children’s Health Insurance Program), geared for families with more income. Officials say the law, which streamlined the application process, has played a key role. So has greater public outreach. But the poor economy is also a factor, with more people losing their jobs and their health benefits in the process. There’s enough money to enroll as many as 289,000 Florida children in the three SCHIP programs, and experts say the need is clear…”

• Utah second worst at enrolling kids in Medicaid, CHIP, By Kirsten Stewart, September 4, 2010, Salt Lake Tribune: “Utah has the country’s second-lowest participation rate in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, a persistent problem propelling the state’s uninsured rate, a new report shows. An estimated 7 million children in America were uninsured on any given day in 2008, and nearly 5 million of those were eligible for government-funded, low-income health insurance programs, according to a report by the Urban Institute. Published Friday in the online journal HealthAffairs, the report uses Census data from the 2008 American Community Survey to estimate rates of participation by children in each state, as well as how many children were eligible but not enrolled. The report doesn’t reflect recent efforts to remedy the problem, nor the large increase in enrollment during the economic recession, said Kolbi Young, a spokeswoman at the Utah Department of Health…”
• Push to enroll uninsured kids in health coverage under way in California, By Bobby Caina Calvan, September 5, 2010, Sacramento Bee: “Despite eligibility for Medi-Cal and Healthy Families, 700,000 children in California remain uninsured, and a push is under way to get them enrolled in government health insurance programs. Dwindling money for outreach and enrollment-assistance programs, coupled with uncertainty over the future of government health programs, may have sowed confusion among many California families, children’s advocates say…”
• New Jersey’s health insurance programs for poor children still are not reaching all the kids who need it, By Lindy Washburn, September 4, 2010, Herald News: “New Jersey’s health insurance programs for poor children still are not reaching all the kids who ought to benefit, a new analysis shows, and 150,000 children under age 18 in the state remain uninsured. More than two-thirds of the state’s uninsured children have at least one parent who is employed full time. The majority are U.S. citizens whose parents are also U.S. citizens. The largest demographic group is Hispanic (59,000), followed by white (46,000) and African-American (30,000). They are more likely to be boys and over 13 years old…”
• Programs help children get health insurance, By Yvonne Wenger, September 4, 2010, The State: “More than 160,000 children living in South Carolina qualify for government health insurance that is free for their parents, but the kids aren’t signed up for the coverage. Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, on Friday challenged South Carolina and other states to find and enroll within five years an estimated 5 million children nationwide who are eligible for the Children’s Health Insurance Program, commonly known as CHIP, or Medicaid…”

• Health care program aims to cover uninsured children, By Patricia Anstett, September 3, 2010, Detroit Free Press: “As millions of children return to school, health leaders today launched an unprecedented national campaign to enroll 5 million uninsured children nationwide - including 172,000 in Michigan - in free or low-cost health insurance programs. Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said the Connecting Kids to Coverage Challenge was timed to coincide with the opening of schools because ‘no child should be unable to read a book because their vision was not checked’ or be unable to participate in school sports because he or she didn’t have affordable coverage to pay for a sports physical. The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid is giving grants to states to help enroll more children in insurance programs…”
• Participation in Children’s Health Insurance Program varies widely across country, By Phil Galewitz, September 3, 2010, Kaiser Health News: “The hunt for the nearly 5 million uninsured U.S. children who are eligible for free or low-cost coverage through Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program just got a road map. A new study published today in Health Affairs shows that 39 percent of the uninsured but eligible kids live in three states: California, Texas and Florida. Another 22 percent live in Georgia, New York, Arizona, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania and North Carolina. That’s not a big surprise, because those states have more than half of all children in the country, according to the researchers at the Urban Institute, a non-partisan think tank in Washington. The study’s real value was showing that the states with the lowest participation rates in Medicaid and CHIP were largely in the Rocky Mountain region and Florida. While the national participation rate in Medicaid/CHIP was 82 percent, five states had participation rates below 70 percent: Nevada (55.4 percent), Utah (66.2 percent), Colorado (68.9 percent), Montana (69.3 percent) and Florida (69.8 percent). In contrast, the study showed the states with highest participation rates are Massachusetts (95 percent), Vermont (94 percent) and Maine (92 percent)…”

Kentucky drops health insurance fee for some poor kids, By Deborah Yetter, August 24, 2010, Louisville Courier-Journal: “Kentucky has dropped a $20 monthly premium that some low-income parents had to pay for state health insurance for their children. The charge ended last month, when the new state budget took effect, according to Gov. Steve Beshear. He had pledged to eliminate the fee for coverage through the Kentucky Children’s Health Insurance Program, or KCHIP, a Medicaid program for low-income children. ‘In these tough economic times, we’re doing everything we can to make sure children have access to quality health care,’ Beshear said Tuesday. The governor had included the measure, which will cost the state about $370,000 a year, in his proposed budget, and lawmakers approved it when they passed the spending plan in May…”

Indiana officials urge health care program enrollment, By Ken Kusmer (AP), July 21, 2010, San Diego Union-Tribune: “State officials and public insurance advocates reached out Wednesday to Indiana’s more than half a million uninsured children and adults to get them enrolled in free and low-cost health care programs. Back-to-school paperwork for many K-12 students will help enroll them in Hoosier Healthwise, Indiana’s health care program combining Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, State School Superintendent Tony Bennett and other officials said at a Statehouse news conference. For example, qualifying for free and reduced-price lunches provides fast-track enrollment into Hoosier Healthwise for needy students, Bennett said…”

Kids’ health care sign-ups move slowly, By Mike Dennison, July 12, 2010, Billings Gazette: “Enrollment for Montana’s expanded children’s health insurance plan continues to inch upward but is still far short of the 30,000 additional kids that supporters hoped for by year’s end, the latest numbers show. Healthy Montana Kids, created by a voter-passed initiative in 2008, has added about 6,600 children to government-funded health insurance plans during the first seven months of its existence. The program offers free health insurance for children in families earning up to 250 percent of the federal poverty level, or $45,800 for a family of three. Anna Whiting Sorrell, the state’s top public health official, said late last week that she thinks the goal of adding 30,000 kids is still reachable and that her agency is mounting ’some major additional outreach’ to sign up more children…”

• Early success makes finding uninsured children tougher, By Phil Galewitz, June 16, 2010, USA Today: “For 55-year-old Hilda Johnson, who cares for her two young grandsons, the ‘Walkers/Talkers’ program was a godsend. Johnson, who is disabled, didn’t know how to get insurance coverage for Bryce, 3, and Brian, 4. Then last year, someone from Kingsley House, a non-profit agency that runs Walkers/Talkers, came to her house and helped her enroll the boys in Medicaid, the state-federal program for the poor. ‘They were more than helpful in doing all the paperwork,’ she said. ‘Without this, I wouldn’t have known what to do.’ The program, which was started more than a decade ago, is one of the most aggressive efforts in the nation to reach children who are eligible but not enrolled in government health insurance programs - Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). The Walkers/Talkers program sends workers into the poorest neighborhoods to knock on doors in search of uninsured children and then helps parents sign them up…”
• Young canvassers part of nationwide health care drive, By Phil Galewitz, June 15, 2010, USA Today: “On a cool weekday afternoon, a small group of young adults gathers outside Covenant House, a homeless shelter where some of them live or go to school. Armed with clipboards, they jump into a van and head out to search for their target: uninsured children. For the next three hours, the group of 20-somethings, called ‘door knockers,’ canvass a lower-income neighborhood looking for children who are eligible for two government programs: Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). ‘We’re in the neighborhood to sign up kids for free health care,’ says Maurice Raspberry, 21, who lives at the shelter. Tami Wright, also 21, answers the door at her grandmother’s house. Her children, ages 1 and 3, are uninsured because she didn’t know how to renew their coverage through Medicaid, the state-federal health program for the poor. ‘I don’t work and I don’t have a car to get to the welfare office,’ says Wright, who is uninsured…”

• Alaska governor vetoes Denali KidCare expansion, By Dan Joling (AP), June 3, 2010, Anchorage Daily News: “Gov. Sean Parnell announced Thursday he will veto expansion of a health insurance program for low-income families because he recently found out the program pays for abortions. ‘I oppose expanding the government’s role in funding abortions,’ Parnell said at a news conference outlining vetoes to the operating and capital budgets. An estimated 18,000 children in Alaska, about 9 percent of the residents age 18 and under, are uninsured. The Alaska version of the federal Children’s Health Insurance Program, Denali KidCare, covers 7,900 Alaska children. Expansion would have added 1,277 more children and 225 pregnant women, according to state Sen. Betty Davis, the Anchorage Democrat who sponsored the bill…”
• Legislators reluctant to override governor’s KidCare funds veto, By Sean Cockerham, June 9, 2010, Anchorage Daily News: “Alaska Senate President Gary Stevens is polling the Senate to see if its members support going into special session and overriding Gov. Sean Parnell’s veto of money to expand Denali KidCare. But Stevens said he doesn’t think there’s enough support for a veto override and personally opposes having a special session. Stevens is taking the poll at the request of Anchorage Democratic Sen. Hollis French. French is a part of the bipartisan majority in the Senate and he’s also running against the Republican Parnell for governor in this year’s election. French and three other Democratic senators, Bettye Davis, Johnny Ellis and Bill Wielechowski, on Tuesday called on Parnell to change his mind about Denali KidCare and bring the Legislature into special session to override the veto. Parnell spokeswoman Sharon Leighow responded that is not going to happen…”

Sick children get guarantee of health coverage, By Bruce Japsen, June 7, 2010, Chicago Tribune: “Seven-year-old Alex Rowe, who has a rare bleeding disorder, soon will have private health insurance again. He is among more than 5 million Americans under the age of 19 with a pre-existing medical condition who cannot be denied coverage by insurance companies beginning as early as September under a key provision of the health care reform law. Covering consumers with pre-existing health problems has long been a point of contention and figured prominently in the national health reform debate. The provision in the law also means more doctor choices for consumers who have been forced to pick up government coverage like Medicaid health insurance for the poor, which typically pays medical providers less money…”

Budget cuts dilute children’s health coverage, By Richard Wolf, May 24, 2010, USA Today: “A federal law that President Obama signed early last year to expand health insurance to 4 million more low-income children has gotten off to a slow start because of budget problems in the states. The law makes more than $10 billion in federal aid available each year through 2013 but requires state funds as well. Faced with budget shortfalls, less than half the states have used it to expand the Children’s Health Insurance Program, studies by the Kaiser Family Foundation, National Academy for State Health Policy and Georgetown University Center for Children and Families show. About 15 states scaled back coverage by increasing waiting periods, raising premiums or making signup more complicated, Kaiser’s study found. As a result, many states will leave federal money unspent, and the increase of 4 million children may not be reached, state officials and children’s health advocates say…”

KidsCare enrollment shrinking since signups frozen, By Ginger Rough, May 15, 2010, Arizona Republic: “The number of children participating in Arizona’s health-insurance program for working families has dropped dramatically since the state stopped allowing new enrollments in January, according to newly released figures. From Jan. 1 to May 1, enrollments in the KidsCare program plunged more than 26 percent, from 45,820 to 33,708. Much of the drop is due to normal attrition - from kids who age out of the program at 19 and parents who fail to make enrollment payments, don’t fill out paperwork or lose a job and thus eligibility. But some is because the state froze enrollment at the end of 2009. There are now more than 40,000 applicants on a waiting list for coverage…”

Children’s insurance program rebounds, but more cuts feared, By Robert T. Garrett, May 7, 2010, Dallas Morning News: “Seven years ago, state leaders working to close a $9.9 billion budget gap took a hatchet to government health insurance for children of the working poor. Thousands of children paid the price when officials tightened eligibility rules and whacked dental, vision and mental health benefits. Gradually, benefits were restored to the Children’s Health Insurance Program and, this month, enrollment reached roughly the same level as in 2003. But CHIP proponents fear the program could be on the block again as lawmakers face an even bigger shortfall - maybe $15 billion - as they write the next two-year budget in their upcoming session. The new federal health care law has limited the state’s ability to cut too deeply into CHIP…”

Arizona lawmakers may revive KidsCare program, By Mary Jo Pitzl, April 22, 2010, Arizona Republic: “Buoyed by the prospect of federal dollars, the state Legislature is poised to reinstate a health-care program for children that it axed just six weeks ago. The House Health Committee voted unanimously Wednesday to direct $9 million to the KidsCare program, which under current law is due to expire on June 15. If approved by the full Legislature, the program would continue, but its reach would be limited - an enrollment freeze that’s been in place since December would remain. The money would come from the state’s general fund. Senate Bill 1403 also restores up to 310,000 single adults to the state’s Medicaid program, Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, if additional federal stimulus dollars arrive. Arizona expects about $435.5 million from the stimulus, which is tied to a jobs bill expected to get to President Obama’s desk within the next few weeks…”

• Health-care plan to cost state $7B a year unless lawmakers restore cuts, By Howard Fischer, March 23, 2010, Arizona Daily Star: “The new federal health-care plan could cost Arizona $7 billion a year if lawmakers here don’t restore the cuts they made to health-care programs, critics say. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Phoenix, said the scheduled elimination of KidsCare on June 15 would put the state at odds with a provision in the new federal program requiring states to maintain their programs as they are when President Obama signs the bill. She said the threat isn’t simply losing the $3 of federal money for each dollar of state funds for the program that provides nearly free care for the children of the working poor…”
• Repeal of children’s program puts Arizona’s Medicaid funding at risk under health overhaul, By Paul Davenport (AP), March 22, 2010, Los Angeles Times: “A controversial decision by Arizona lawmakers to eliminate a health insurance program for poor children puts it at risk of losing billions of dollars in federal Medicaid funding under the historic health care bill approved by Congress. Arizona last week became the first state to eliminate its Children’s Health Insurance Program, removing an estimated 38,000 kids from the rolls starting in June in a budget-cutting move by Gov. Jan Brewer and the Republican-led Legislature…”
• Health care bill would bring higher state Medicaid costs, By Cy Ryan, March 22, 2010, Las Vegas Sun: “The health bill passed by the House of Representatives Sunday would cost Nevada taxpayers an extra $613 million from 2014-2019, to provide health care to the needy. According to early state estimates, the bill would make an additional 70,000 residents eligible for Medicaid. The state would be mandated to cover another 8,000 individuals who are now eligible but have not applied to be covered by the state health insurance program for the poor. About 209,000 Nevadans are currently covered by Medicaid…”
• Adding to Medicaid rolls won’t be easy, Texas officials say, By Corrie MacLaggan and Tim Eaton, March 22, 2010, Austin American Statesman: “As Texas considers how to add 2 million people to Medicaid and CHIP over 10 years as part of the federal health care legislation heading to President Barack Obama, state health officials say that won’t be easy. The same enrollment system that is already struggling to enroll Texans in food stamps as quickly as the federal government requires would need to be ramped up soon to prepare for additions to Medicaid and CHIP that would start in 2014. Health reform is a ‘hurricane heading our way in terms of what it would do’ to the enrollment system, said Stephanie Goodman, a spokeswoman for the Health and Human Services Commission…”

Arizona drops children’s health program, By Kevin Sack, March 18, 2010, New York Times: “Arizona on Thursday became the first state to eliminate its Children’s Health Insurance Program when Gov. Jan Brewer signed an austere budget that will leave nearly 47,000 low-income children without coverage. The Arizona budget is a vivid reflection of how the fiscal crisis afflicting state governments is cutting deeply into health care. The state also will roll back Medicaid coverage for childless adults in a move that is expected to eventually drop 310,000 people from the rolls. State leaders said they were left with few choices because of a $2.6 billion projected shortfall next year. But hospital officials and advocates for low-income people said they were worried that emergency rooms would be overrun by patients who had few other options for care, and that children might suffer enduring developmental problems because of inadequate medical attention. The cuts also mean the state will forgo hundreds of millions of dollars in federal matching aid, and could lose far more if Congress passes a health bill that requires states to maintain eligibility levels for the two programs…”

Ohio joining push to insure kids, By Catherine Candisky, March 12, 2010, Columbus Dispatch: “Two of three uninsured kids in Ohio - 77,000 youngsters - don’t have to go without health care. Their modest family incomes qualify them for tax-funded coverage, but they aren’t enrolled. Ohio will become the first state to join a challenge by the Obama administration to eliminate the ranks of so-called uninsured eligibles within five years, Gov. Ted Strickland announced yesterday. To meet that goal, Ohio will adopt three initiatives to make it easier for families to enroll in the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) and keep them covered longer…”

CoverKids insurance program reopens to new enrollees, By Janell Ross, February 12, 2010, The Tennessean: “Tennessee’s uninsured children will have a chance to enroll in a government-funded health-care program beginning March 1, about four months after it was closed to new participants because of the state budget crunch. In November, cash-strapped Tennessee became the only state in the nation to close its version of the children’s health insurance program to new enrollees. State officials said at the time closing CoverKids was a tough choice but necessary because of a projected $1.5 billion state budget shortfall. Now CoverKids will draw between $1.5 million and $2 million from a state savings account for public health insurance programs, said Joe Burchfield, a spokesman for Cover Tennessee, the umbrella organization that oversees CoverKids…”

• Medicaid, while caring for more, faces big budget challenge, By Deborah Yetter, February 9, 2010, Louisville Courier-Journal: “During his 20 years as an electrician, Eric Sachse never sought any type of public assistance. But then Sachse, a 38-year-old single father in Louisville, lost his job - and health insurance for him and his son, 9. So last month, Sachse signed son John up for the Kentucky Children’s Health Insurance Program, a Medicaid program that covers children of low-income parents. Although Sachse doesn’t qualify for Medicaid himself, he said getting coverage for his son is what counts. ‘I was just really fearful of how I was going to take care of any health care situation,’ he said. As the economy has worsened in the past two years, Kentucky’s Medicaid rolls are rising faster than at any other time in the past decade, adding poor, disabled and low-income people at the rate of 3,400 a month…”
• Hawaii may delay payments to Quest health plan, By Derrick DePledge, February 7, 2010, Honolulu Advertiser: “The state Department of Human Services has warned health insurance companies that the state may not make payments for Quest - the state’s health plan for low-income families - for the last quarter of the fiscal year, leaving insurers to absorb about $300 million in medical expenses until at least July. The potential delay in payments has stunned insurers and alarmed health care providers, who worry a delay could jeopardize the ability of insurers to cover claims, which would cause cash flow problems and influence how some providers care for Quest members…”
• Tennessee hospitals push for tax to offset cuts to TennCare, By Chas Sisk, February 9, 2010, The Tennessean: “The Tennessee Hospital Association’s members will push for a temporary tax on their revenues to reduce cuts to the TennCare program proposed last week by Gov. Phil Bredesen. The association’s board voted Monday to approve a one-year ‘coverage fee’ of 1 percent to 2 percent that would raise money for hospital services scheduled to receive less funding from TennCare. The fee likely would go into effect July 1 and would not be passed along to patients, association officials said. The group also will lobby the state to dip further into reserves and to use any additional revenue that comes into the state to reduce TennCare cuts…”
• Medicaid cuts ‘devastating’ to rural hospitals, By Heather Stanek, February 8, 2010, Fond du Lac Reporter: “Rural hospitals around Fond du Lac say a proposed assessment will help them avoid cutting services or raising prices. Ripon Medical Center and Waupun Memorial Hospital are two of the 59 critical-access hospitals across the state dealing with cuts in Medicaid payments. In an effort to slash costs, the state reduced its Medicaid reimbursements by 10 percent, leaving hospitals to pick up heftier bills for caring for low-income patients. Waupun Memorial, part of Agnesian HealthCare, stands to lose $300,000 annually due to Medicaid cuts, said DeAnn Thurmer, WMH chief operating officer. About 10 percent of the hospital’s patients depend on Medicaid. The Wisconsin Hospital Association and Rural Wisconsin Hospital Cooperative are drafting a legislative bill that would help restore federal dollars to rural hospitals…”

• State budget cuts threaten Healthy Kids effort, By Kurtis Alexander, January 24, 2010, Santa Cruz Sentinel: “The future of the county’s Healthy Kids program, which has successfully linked thousands of uninsured children with medical care, is hanging on policy decisions made far from Santa Cruz, and health care advocates are worried. The governor is calling for halting state funds vital to the local insurance effort, while federal lawmakers appear to be abandoning legislation that may have patched some of the gaps in California’s cash-strapped health care programs. ‘More than ever, we face the specter of this being the most damaging year for children’s health that we’ve ever seen,’ said Cliff Sarkin, a senior policy analyst with Children’s Defense Fund California, a group that advocates for low-income children. ‘We’re looking at many threats right now.’ Healthy Kids of Santa Cruz County, which counts more than 13,000 kids from poor families as benefactors, works by enlisting uninsured children not only into a locally funded insurance plan but into state and federal programs as well…”
• Healthy Families health insurance program faces major cuts, By James Rufus Koren, January 22, 2010, San Bernadino County Sun: “About 16,000 children in San Bernardino County could lose their state-subsidized health insurance in May if legislators agree budget cuts proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this month. In his Jan. 8 budget presentation, Schwarzenegger called for cutting more than $96 million from the state’s Healthy Families program, which provides low-cost health insurance for children. He also threatened to eliminate the program, which is partially funded by the federal government, if his request for $6.9 billion in additional federal funds falls through. The cuts would come mainly from increasing insurance premiums and making about 25 percent fewer children eligible for the program, said Bradley Gilbert, chief executive officer of Inland Empire Health Plan, an insurance provider that covers about 60,000 children through Healthy Families…”

Health reform could endanger CHIP funds, By Rosemary Shinohara, January 9, 2010, Anchorage Daily News: “In reshaping America’s health care, Congress may eliminate a major health insurance program for some U.S. children in families with incomes above the federal poverty level, but Alaska’s kids in the program likely won’t be affected. The prospect that Congress may ditch the Children’s Health Insurance Program has raised alarms nationally, with concerns about whether some children will lose insurance, and whether their families will be able to afford private insurance with new government subsidies that would be created…”

• Despite recession, 26 states grew health coverage this year, By Phil Galewitz, December 8, 2009, Miami Herald: “Despite the economic downturn that’s busting state budgets from Sacramento to Tallahassee, 26 states this year made it easier for low-income children, parents or pregnant women to get health coverage, according to a report released Tuesday by the Kaiser Family Foundation. But the gains could be fleeting as most were made possible by new federal stimulus dollars, which run out at the end of 2010, along with a requirement that states maintain Medicaid eligibility levels. The report surveyed how states were handling Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). States also benefited from the federal reauthorization of the CHIP program last February, which gave them new options to expand eligibility and millions of dollars to find uninsured kids…”
• Most uninsured In Lower Hudson are working U.S. citizens, By Candice Ferrette and Tim Henderson, December 8, 2009, Journal News: “They are waiters, dental assistants, preschool teachers, hairdressers, small-business owners and recent college graduates. More than half of the uninsured people living in the Lower Hudson Valley are working U.S. citizens who stand to be affected by the national health-care reform debate. As more people become unemployed, this group of people still has jobs but no health insurance…”

State faces backlog of applications for Montana Healthy Kids, By Mike Dennison, December 10, 2009, The Missoulian: “Two months into the state’s new, expanded children’s health insurance program, only about 740 kids have been added, as health officials try to erase a backlog in processing applications. State officials also have held off on a planned statewide advertising blitz for the new program, known as Healthy Montana Kids, while they work through delays in the approval process. ‘We want to make sure our eligibility (processing) is working as it should,’ said Anna Whiting Sorrell, director of the state Department of Public Health and Human Services. ‘We don’t want to frustrate people.’ Yet Whiting Sorrell said the state is still encouraging families to apply for the programs. ‘Our message to all Montana families who would like health coverage for their children is, apply now,’ she said. ‘Even though we’re experiencing a heavy workload, people should still apply.’ Healthy Montana Kids, approved by voter initiative in 2008, expands two government health insurance programs - Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Plan - with the goal of covering an additional 29,000 children in low- and moderate-income families in Montana…”

• Fla. Medicaid lawsuit heads to trial, By Kelli Kennedy (AP), December 2, 2009, Miami Herald: “The state has spent about $2 million defending a class-action lawsuit that claims Florida is violating federal Medicaid requirements by providing inadequate medical and dental care to more than a million children. The case, scheduled for trial next week, claims 390,000 children did not get a medical checkup in 2007 and more than 750,000 received no dental care. The problem: Many doctors and dentists won’t accept Medicaid as Florida’s reimbursement rates are among the country’s lowest. Medicaid pays $15 for a basic dental exam in Florida, compared to $25 in Tennessee, which is considered a model of success for Medicaid dental reform. It’s about $40 for private insurance. A pilot program in Miami-Dade County pays dentists a monthly fee of $6.55 to treat each child…”
• TN health insurance plans stop enrolling needy, By Christina E. Sanchez and Janell Ross, December 2, 2009, The Tennessean: “As state funds run dry, Tennessee has cut off enrollment for two health insurance programs for low-income people, leaving the state at risk of a crisis, advocates say. Tennessee became the only state in the nation to have frozen enrollment for a children’s health insurance program funded largely with federal money, according to the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington, D.C. The state stopped accepting new CoverKids applicants on Monday. At the same time, the state stopped enrolling adults in CoverTN, an insurance program designed for the self-employed and working poor…”
• NC Medicaid dealing with cost-control delays, By Gary D. Robertson, December 1, 2009, Charlotte Observer: “North Carolina is breaking the Medicaid budget lawmakers approved this summer because more people need health insurance coverage after losing their jobs and are getting treated for swine flu, an agency leader said Tuesday. State spending for the government health insurance program for low-income families and senior citizens - along with the disabled - is $160 million over budget so far this fiscal year as expenditures have surged nearly 9 percent compared to a year ago, Health and Human Services Secretary Lanier Cansler said…”

Uninsured in Virginia: Health care reform bills hold promise for low-income families, By Lisa Finneran, November 29, 2009, Daily Press: “Bernard Hampton knows what it’s like to pay for his family’s medical care. Until a few months ago, neither Hampton nor his 4-year-old daughter, Jasene, had health insurance. Recently, Hampton applied for and received health insurance through the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, the federal program known in Virginia as the Family Access to Medical Insurance Security plan, or FAMIS. It provides low-cost health insurance to children in low- to moderate-income families who don’t qualify for Medicaid…”

• State’s poor being shifted to different medical plan, By Chen May Yee, November 10, 2009, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune: “The Pawlenty administration, which faced criticism for proposing to eliminate a state health-care program for the indigent, has decided to transfer most of those recipients to a subsidized insurance plan for the working poor. The General Assistance Medical Care (GAMC) program for adults making less than $7,800 a year is scheduled to go away March 1, potentially leaving some 36,000 recipients — many with chronic illnesses and often homeless and mentally ill — without regular access to medical care. Now some 28,000 will be automatically enrolled in MinnesotaCare, a subsidized health insurance plan. The remainder are those whose GAMC eligibility is running out or who already are applying for MinnesotaCare…”
• More Alaska Medicaid kids may get braces, Associated Press, November 10, 2009, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner: “The state of Alaska must pay for braces on the teeth of foster children and young people on Medicaid who need them, a Superior Court judge ruled Monday. Judge William Morse issued an order in a lawsuit brought by an advocacy group for foster children called Facing Foster Care in Alaska. He granted a preliminary injunction against a state rule that limits braces to severe conditions such as cleft palate. The state argued that Facing Foster Care does not have the right to bring a lawsuit. Morse disagreed and ruled the state cannot use its own regulations to limit services that are required by federal code. The braces still have to be medically necessary - not just for the sake of appearance…”
• KidCare numbers drop; Medicaid kids rise, By Bill McCarthy, November 9, 2009, Wyoming Tribune Eagle: “The number of children on Wyoming Kid Care CHIP is declining, but the number of children on Medicaid is going up. Bob Peck, chief financial officer for the Wyoming Department of Health, said one explanation could be that parents are losing their jobs. Formerly working parents who had their children on the Kid Care program for child health insurance may be having to enroll their families directly into Medicaid, he said…”

Ky. increases number of kids in health programs, By Beth Musgrave, November 3, 2009, Lexington Herald-Leader: “State officials said Monday that they are on target to enroll 35,000 children in two key public health programs by the end of 2009, six months ahead of schedule. In November 2008, Gov. Steve Beshear pledged to increase the number of children in Kentucky Children’s Health Insurance Program or Medicaid programs by decreasing some of the road blocks to the government health insurance program for low-income families. Currently, there are 32,000 new children enrolled in the two programs, Beshear said at a press conference Monday at Second Street School in Frankfort. But both programs combined have enrolled on average 2,600 children a month. Current rates indicate that the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, which oversees the health insurance programs, will meet the 35,000 goal by December instead of June 2010, as originally projected…”

• Medicaid, S-CHIP expansion plan could hurt states’ budgets, By Richard Wolf, October 18, 2009, USA Today: “The government programs that provide health care to the poor would expand to cover nearly one in five Americans under health insurance legislation pending in Congress, putting pressure on federal and state budgets. Medicaid, one of the fastest-growing government programs for two decades, and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program would grow from about 50 million people today to more than 60 million in 2019, according to data from the Congressional Budget Office and Kaiser Family Foundation. That would be the biggest single expansion since Medicaid was created in 1965…”
• Medicaid expansion brings pro, con reactions, By Emily Bregel, October 19, 2009, Chattanooga Times Free Press: “Local physicians said health care reform proposals to expand Medicaid coverage drastically, while well-intentioned, are likely unsustainable. ‘Where is the money going to come from to make this happen?’ said Dr. Mack Worthington, a family practice physician in Chattanooga who said almost one-quarter of his patients are on TennCare. ‘I’m all for increasing access, but I just wonder how it’s going to be funded.’ The U.S. Senate Finance Committee last week passed a health reform proposal that would expand Medicaid programs to anyone who earns up to 133 percent of the poverty level, or about $29,000 a year for a family of four…”
• Uninsured & overwhelmed, By Ben Piper, October 18, 2009, Hattiesburg American: “Casey Little finds herself in a health care predicament. Little, 25, of Seminary needs health insurance to be able to afford treatments that could relieve the pain she suffers from fibromyalgia. But the nerve disorder has left her constantly hurting, unable to work - and unable to get insurance…”
• Pressure mounts: 12,000 caught in a backlog, By Andra Bryan Stefanoni, October 19, 2009, Joplin Globe: “When Candice Sinclair was nearing the end of her pregnancy, she applied for Medicaid to cover her expenses and those of her soon-to-be-born son, Jake. That was in June. Their applications still haven’t been processed, meaning Sinclair is left without means to pay an estimated $5,000 hospital bill, and for Jake’s first year of immunizations and checkups…”
• Kansas has backlog of 12,000 Medicaid applications, Associated Press, October 19, 2009, Kansas City Star: “Rising unemployment, the swelling ranks of the uninsured, outdated technology and the state’s budget problems have led to a backlog of 12,000 Medicaid applications in Kansas, health officials said. A contractor that processes applications for the Kansas Health Policy Authority is supposed to complete them in two to six weeks, but has taken up to four months in some cases…”
• Lessons from the Massachusetts healthcare experiment, By James Oliphant and Kim Geiger, October 17, 2009, Los Angeles Times: “Three years ago, Massachusetts passed the most sweeping healthcare bill in the country, adopting a plan that closely resembles the proposals being considered by Congress. It is a plan that now offers powerful lessons for the whole nation. The state’s system, like the proposals moving toward votes in the House and Senate, focused on three goals: making medical insurance almost universal, fostering competition through a regulated insurance exchange, and helping low-income workers pay for coverage. Today, Massachusetts leads the nation with 96% of its residents covered by insurance — an even larger share than some of the plans before Congress would cover. The employer-based insurance system remains intact despite fears that the state’s healthcare overhaul might cause companies to pull back…”

From healthy kids to healthy adults, By Megha Satyanarayana, October 12, 2009, Detroit Free Press: “Jamel Bomer of Redford Township, a Westin Book Cadillac valet, is the father of a 1-year-old on Medicaid. ‘He can go to any doctor that accepts it,’ Bomer said of son Ryan. ‘Without it, we wouldn’t be able to provide him care.’ Even with publicly funded Medicaid, which many doctors don’t take, Bomer and his fiancée are working off a $230 bill for the part of Ryan’s birth that wasn’t covered on Bomer’s $5.15 per hour plus tips. ‘Our income is tight to the penny.’ Although Ryan is covered, neither Bomer nor his fiancée, a TV news intern, have insurance. While Congress and the president debate over comprehensive health care reform, local and national experts say making sure all children have coverage now will mean they have a better chance of growing into healthy adults who will be less of a burden on the health care system…”

• ‘Shockingly wide’ health gaps among states, By Rita Rubin, October 8, 2009, USA Today: “A new ’scorecard’ lists ’shockingly wide variations’ among the states when it comes to the health of their residents, says the president of the Commonwealth Fund, which compared such factors as access to care, insurance coverage and avoidable hospital admissions. ‘The differences we see among the states translate to real lives and real dollars,’ Karen Davis said Wednesday at a news conference…”
• Report shows healthcare disparities among states, By Andrew Zajac, October 7, 2009, Chicago Tribune: “Even as state and federal initiatives have extended a medical safety net beneath children in recent years, more and more adult Americans have been living without insurance coverage - compounding the already-serious problems of the healthcare system and fueling sharp disparities in the cost and quality of care across the country. Those disparities, graphically documents in state-by-state rankings released Wednesday by the non-partisan Commonwealth Fund, underscored one of the biggest challenges in designing a healthcare overhaul: The nation doesn’t have one system and one reality, it has at least 50 - each with its own economic, social and demographic characteristics…”

• Kentucky insures greater share of children, By Jere Downs, September 21, 2009, Louisville Courier-Journal: “Kentucky has provided health insurance for a greater share of its children than Indiana or the nation as a whole, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Tuesday. Ninety-three percent of the children in Kentucky had health insurance, greater than Indiana’s 82 percent and higher than the national average of 90 percent, the Census figures showed…”
• Census: Nevada leads nation in uninsured children, By Frank X. Mullen, Jr., September 23, 2009, Reno Gazette-Journal: “Nevada has a larger percentage of children without health insurance than any other state. And among the 75 percent of adult Nevadans covered by employer-sponsored health insurance, family insurance premiums have risen 97 percent since 1999 as wages increased an average of 43 percent. That’s the verdict of the Census Bureau’s American Community survey released Tuesday, the first time the annual update has included health insurance data…”
• Survey shows disparities in health care coverage for Minnesota kids, By Tim Nelson, September 22, 2009, Minnesota Public Radio: “Minnesota ranks third in the nation in the percentage of people who have health insurance, according to recent figures from the U.S. Census. But new survey data indicate some disparities around the state - particularly for kids. The Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey looked closely at health insurance coverage for the first time in 2008. Overall, Minnesota fared well, ranking behind only Massachusetts and Hawaii in the percentage of its population covered by health insurance…”

Michigan struggles to insure kids, By Kim Kozlowski, September 15, 2009, Detroit News: “Michigan’s budget crisis is expected to prevent expansion of children’s health insurance coverage because the state can’t afford to match an extra $100 million in federal funds. Michigan has to come up with a 26 percent match, or about $33 million, for its MIChild program to get federal funds from the recently renewed Children’s Health Insurance Program, state health officials say. But the need comes as lawmakers scramble to close a $2.8 billion deficit for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. Democratic and Republican lawmakers agree it is unlikely the state can come up with the $33 million at a time when budget talks are focused on cuts, and millions of federal dollars for other health programs have been bypassed due to cuts made earlier this year…”

• Rule limits reach of Iowa health program, By Nigel Duara (AP), September 14, 2009, Des Moines Register: “A state program offering health care to low-income adults without children is serving thousands of people who have never had health insurance, but more than half of those enrolling are from six Iowa counties. That’s because people seeking care through IowaCare can only go to the University of Iowa Hospitals in Iowa City. The exception are people who live in Polk County, who can request a waiver to seek treatment at a Des Moines hospital. The situation has frustrated some hospital administrators and legislators, who call it unequal treatment that hurts patients and hospitals…”
• ALL Kids insurance program eligibility expands Oct. 1, By Phillip Rawls (AP), September 14, 2009, Montgomery Advertiser: “Many middle-class Alabama children will qualify for publicly funded health insurance starting Oct. 1 because the Legislature is expanding eligibility to cover families of four making up to $66,150 annually. ‘For so many middle-income families, it never entered their minds they would be eligible for a public program,’ Cathy Caldwell, who directs the ALL Kids health insurance program for the state Department of Public Health…”

• 10,000 working parents to lose health insurance, By Casey Newton, September 8, 2009, Arizona Republic: “Nearly 10,000 working parents will lose their health insurance this month in the wake of state budget cuts, leaving some families with nowhere to turn as they seek affordable coverage. KidsCare Parents, a program that provides low-income families with inexpensive insurance, will end Sept. 30. The Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, which administers the program, could not pay the $6 million annual cost following cuts by the Legislature. The state faces a $3 billion budget shortfall. The move comes as demand for government assistance is skyrocketing. Arizona has lost an estimated 240,000 jobs since December 2007, and AHCCCS has added 150,000 people to its rolls since January…”
• Legislature gets one right: Healthy Kids continues, Editorial, September 8, 2009, Vacaville Reporter: “The California Legislature came together last week and accomplished the seemingly impossible. On a bipartisan vote — unanimous, even, in the Assembly — it found a way to keep more than 600,000 children from losing their health insurance. More amazing, it found a way to pay for the Healthy Families program. During the summer’s contentious budget negotiations, the Legislature sliced $144 million from the program that provides medical insurance for children whose parents cannot afford it. Then the governor lopped off another $50 million in a line-item veto. Both were insane decisions. Not only does the federal government contribute $2 for every $1 the state puts into the program, but Healthy Families has consistently proven that it saves taxpayers money in the long run…”

• California board votes to drop healthcare coverage for 60,000 children, By Patrick McGreevy and Evan Halper, August 14, 2009, Los Angeles Times: “The announcement by state officials that California has enough cash to stop paying bills with IOUs did little to take the sting out of other budget news Thursday: Tens of thousands of poor children are about to lose their healthcare coverage. A state board voted Thursday to begin terminating health insurance for more than 60,000 children Oct. 1 as a result of the budget amendments signed into law recently by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Those children would be up for an annual review of their coverage next month, but instead they may be dropped from the California Healthy Families program under the action by the state Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board…”
• State will boot children from insurance program starting Oct. 1, By James Rufus Koren, August 14, 2009, San Bernardino Sun: “Starting in October, hundreds of thousands of California children will likely lose their state-subsidized health insurance as cuts to the Healthy Families program begin to take effect. As they struggled to balance the state’s budget, the state Legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger cut $178 million from the program, which provides low-cost health insurance to more than 900,000 children, mostly in low- and middle-income families. Those cuts left the program with about half the state funding officials said it would need to be fully funded…”

• States make deep cuts to health, By Pauline Vu, August 5, 2009, Stateline.org: “Although states are facing their worst fiscal crisis since the Great Depression, 14 found the dollars this year to increase health coverage for about 250,000 children. That’s one of the few bright spots for health within state budgets in a year in which all but a handful of states faced shortfalls and were forced to shrink taxpayer-financed programs. The 14 states – Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington and West Virginia – took advantage of an additional $33 million that Congress appropriated when it reauthorized the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in February. At the same time, President Obama rescinded a Bush administration directive that had hampered states’ ability to expand coverage for children whose families earned too much to qualify for Medicaid but too little to buy their own health insurance…”
• Health fund for jobless runs low, By Kay Lazar, August 5, 2009, Boston Globe: “A unique state program that helps pay most health insurance costs for 27,000 unemployed Massachusetts residents is on the cusp of going broke, setting off a debate between healthcare advocates and business leaders who say funding it is a burden on companies fighting for their survival. The state’s Medical Security Program, financed solely by a tax on employers, will run out of money in January because of the surge in unemployment over the past year, state officials said yesterday. The most logical way to maintain it, officials said, is to increase the per-employee tax, which hasn’t been raised since 1990…”

• California deal leaves more kids uninsured, By Ryan Knutson, August 1, 2009, Wall Street Journal: “California’s budget deal is expected to nearly double the state’s number of uninsured children and puts a spotlight on a key provision in the health-care bills in Congress. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this week signed a revised annual budget to close California’s $24 billion shortfall, including a $1.4 billion cut to Medi-Cal, the state’s version of Medicaid. In addition, California slashed $178.6 million from Healthy Families, its version of the Children’s Health Insurance Program…”
• Sacramento-area parents fear Healthy Families cuts, By Bobby Caina Calvan, August 3, 2009, Sacramento Bee: ” Monique Kolster and her children are in a tense waiting game. Her daughter Elle is a healthy 2-year-old, but 4-year-old Tadd has a chronic ailment requiring frequent visits to doctors and specialists. Sometime soon Kolster will learn if the children can keep their medical coverage from California’s budget-ravaged Healthy Families program, the safety net for hundreds of thousands of children…”

• Defying slump, 13 states insure more children, By Kevin Sack, July 18, 2009, New York Times: “Despite budgets ravaged by the recession, at least 13 states have invested millions of dollars this year to cover 250,000 more children with subsidized government health insurance…”
• Governors fear Medicaid costs in health plan, By Kevin Sack and Robert Pear, July 19, 2009, New York Times: “The nation’s governors, Democrats as well as Republicans, voiced deep concern Sunday about the shape of the health care plan emerging from Congress, fearing that Washington was about to hand them expensive new Medicaid obligations without money to pay for them…”
• More uninsured patients cause struggle for local hospitals, By Sarah Tompkins, July 19, 2009, Munster Times: “While about 700 working Hoosiers each week lose health insurance during the declining economy, local hospitals and doctors are left to figure out how they can continue to treat more and more uninsured…”
• Millions more lacking insurance, By Mark Johnson, July 19, 2009, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “This month, Pierre Aterianus is due back at the doctor for twice-a-year tests of his high cholesterol, but he may stay home and simply hope he isn’t heading toward a heart attack or stroke. Aterianus, who is 57 and lives in Whitefish Bay with his 23-year-old daughter, was laid off in January from his engineering job…”
• Healthy Kids expansion to take time, By Margot Sanger-Katz, July 17, 2009, Concord Monitor: “Gov. John Lynch signed a bill yesterday that will allow young adults to purchase low-cost health insurance from a state plan originally designed for low-income children…”