The Supreme Court upheld a key provision of the Affordable Care Act today, protecting subsidies that make health insurance affordable for millions of Americans, and tens of thousands of West Virginians.In a 6-3 ruling, the Court found that premium subsidies should be available both in states that have set up their own health insurance exchanges, and…
Health
Just a month into peak flu season, the CDC has already declared a national epidemic due to the flu's widespread activity and the deadly nature of this year's virus. West Virginia is no exception. The outbreak is considered widespread across our state, as you can see from the the map below. While preventing the spread of the…
Want a real scare this Halloween? Imagine having to pay up to ten times more on average for your children's health care. This is the increased cost estimate if Congress does not reauthorize funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), according to a study commissioned by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The CHIP program provides…
The health of of close to 25,000 children in West Virginia is at risk if Congress does not chose to reauthorize the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). As Senator Jay Rockefeller mentioned in today's Charleston Gazette, defunding CHIP could hurt not only children's health but making it harder for families to make ends meet. CHIP is a…
On July 24, 2014, the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, West Virginia FREE and the Service Employees International Union presented "Keeping Families Healthy: West Virginia Earned Sick Days and Family Medical Leave" at the Our Children Our Future Policy Workshop in Hurricane, WV. View the full presentation. Everybody Needs Time Off from Work…
Last week, the CDC released new data from its biennial Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS). The YRBSS surveys thousands of middle and high school aged youth across the country, questioning them about a number of health and behavioral risk factors, everything from diet to alcohol use to sexual activity. The survey is large enough…
Obamacare, like it or not, seems to be working. While some headlines this week showed that the popularity of Obamacare continues to slide, recent surveys are finding the percentage of uninsured people across the country is at historic lows. (Oddly, popularity of the Affordable Care Act, which we all know -- should know, at least -- …
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced the release of a bunch of Medicare data today, the biggest release in CMS history, in fact. The data include information for nearly 900,000 distinct health care providers across the country who received over $77 billion in Medicare payments in 2012. This is the second big…
While I appreciated reading a column this week by Hoppy Kercheval about the ACA, I was disappointed to see him recycle the same arguments that have been disproved for months now. Hoppy's biggest concern is how we're going to pay for Medicaid expansion in the future. He points out that the actuarial estimates showed that…
The 2014 County Health Rankings were released this week and in a bit of a surprise, little Pleasants County took top honors, while for the 5th year in a row, McDowell County earned the dubious distinction of the least healthy county in the state. These rankings, compiled annually by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and…