WOWK - Our Future West Virginia will have a free, public Medicaid forum on the West Side of Charleston, West Virginia, in March. Read the full article. The organization says the COVID-19 Pandemic Emergency Coverage program will soon end, leaving many West Virginians without Medicaid coverage. The forum will help teach the community about important…
Health
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government passed legislation to help families and health care providers amid an unprecedented health and economic crisis. Among the provisions, states were required to keep people who receive health insurance via Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) continuously enrolled in the programs in exchange…
Beckley Register-Herald - The state health department will soon be required to assess if more than 600,000 Medicaid users – more than a third of the state’s population – are still eligible for free or low-cost health insurance. Read the full article. The undertaking comes as the department, which is facing mounting criticism for its…
Mountain State Spotlight, My Buckhannon - Yesterday was Crossover Day, a key legislative deadline. This is the day when the full universe of bills introduced during the session — 2,316, to be exact — is whittled down. For the most part, bills that didn’t clear their chamber of origin (the House or the Senate) by…
Mountain State Spotlight - For the more than 200,000 public employees who rely on the state’s health insurance agency, their premiums may soon go up. Lawmakers are also advancing a pay raise for state employees but union leaders say they’re worried that it might not offset premium increases now and in the future. Read the…
Mountain State Spotlight, Fayette Tribune - As Katonya Hart stood outside of the House of Delegates chamber at the West Virginia Capitol, a sparkly tiara fastened to her multicolored twists, the energy around her was undeniable. Read the full article. A floor below, the women of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. moved about in coordinated…
Wheeling News-Register - Lawmakers discussed a bill Thursday that would help poor families who make just enough to not qualify for Medicaid gain access to affordable health insurance. Read the full article. The House Health and Human Resources Committee recommended for passage Thursday a strike-and-insert amendment to House Bill 3274, creating the Affordable Medicaid Buy-in…
West Virginia Public Broadcasting - After federal and state level changes to Medicaid, many Americans will be left without health insurance coverage by the end of the year. Read the full article. To remedy the financial strain on West Virginia families, lawmakers are considering a bill to create a high-quality, low-cost health insurance plan for…
With a relatively short 60-day legislative session, the bills that get considered—and the ones that don’t—tell us a lot about our lawmakers’ priorities. Now that we are exactly halfway through the 2023 session, the WVCBP team lends insight into what we’ve seen prioritized so far and what we would like to see prioritized during the…
WTRF - Poor oral health is widespread in West Virginia, but Wheeling Health Right was recognized nationally for their fully integrated medical and dental free clinic. Read the full article. It significantly affects almost all aspects of life including the workforce, emergency room utilization, and chronic health conditions. According to a 2014 report from the…