On September 16, 2019 Executive Director Ted Boettner presented to a coalition on how to pay for Medicaid for All. The presentation explored several studies on the financing and distributional impact of Medicare for All proposals. View presentation.
Health
Everyone gets sick, but not everyone gets paid time off work to get better. Nearly half of West Virginia’s private sector workers, 46 percent, lacks paid sick leave, and people of color and low-income workers are the least likely to have access to this benefit. This means that those who have the most to lose by…
A new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) finds that 348 lives were saved since West Virginia expanded Medicaid in 2014. The study compares death rates of the near-elderly - those between the ages of 55 and 64 - in states that have and have not expanded Medicaid and finds that in…
Proposals to force people who do not report a set number of hours worked per month would cause thousands of West Virginians to lose their Medicaid health coverage. The vast majority would become uninsured. This would lead to poorer health outcomes, more financial insecurity for low-income people, and reduced revenues for hospitals while raising health…
This past legislative session, the House introduced House Bill 3136 that directed the WV DHHR to apply for a Section 1115 waiver to implement Medicaid work reporting requirements on all non-elderly adults in enrolled in the program. If enacted, and approved from the federal government (CMS), it would force thousands of people who do not…
A lawsuit that began as a long-shot challenge to the Affordable Care Act now has life and death stakes as it winds its way through the courts. This is a lawsuit that West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey signed the state onto, even though our residents arguably have the most to lose if the Affordable…
As state legislatures and officials around the country consider applying for Medicaid demonstration projects, or waivers, Indiana’s “Healthy Indiana Program 2.0” (HIP 2.0) is often touted as a more efficient way of delivering Medicaid services. But is it? When Indiana adopted the Medicaid expansion in 2015, it did so through a Section 1115 waiver which…
Though the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2010 dramatically reduced the number of uninsured people in the United States in the immediate years following implementation, many states (including West Virginia) have been experiencing a turnaround. West Virginia especially experienced a historic decrease in the number of uninsured citizens. Now, nine years after…
West Virginia experienced historic gains in the number of residents insured when the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid expansion were implemented. In fact, West Virginia arguably benefited more than any other state from the provisions of the Affordable Care Act. In 2013, prior to implementation, the state’s uninsured rate was 14 percent. By 2016, it…
In March 2019, West Virginia lawmakers passed Senate Bill 564 to raise the Medicaid eligibility for pregnant women to 300 percent of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) while guaranteeing coverage for 60-days postpartum. By aligning West Virginia with current state trends and closing a health insurance gap, this policy will provide coverage for hundreds of…