Health

Earlier this month, Kentucky announced it would be joining West Virginia and 19 other states in expanding Medicaid as part of the Affordable Care Act.  Kentucky, however, had stronger evidence to support its decision than West Virginia.  While West Virginia estimated expansion would cost the state around $375 million over the first 10 years, Kentucky looked…

A new report from the Kaiser Family Foundation looks at the poverty rate of seniors across the country. The report uses the new supplemental poverty measure from the Census Bureau to estimate poverty rates. According to the Census Bureau, poverty rates among elderly West Virginians are slightly higher under the supplemental poverty measure (11%) than…

An article in yesterday's Wheeling Intelligencer claims that a Northern Panhandle pediatrician is being forced to retire because of the costs of Obamacare.  It makes for a great headline for opponents of the Affordable Care Act, but is it true?  In short, no, at least not for the reason cited. Dr. Ventosa's primary claim is that…

When Governor Tomblin announced earlier this month that West Virginia would be expanding Medicaid as part of the Affordable Care Act, there was little said on how this move will positively impact the state's substance abuse problem. The Governor's Advisory Council on Substance Abuse (GACSA) (created by Tomblin in 2011) estimated that there are over…

Last week, Governor Tomblin announced that West Virginia would be expanding Medicaid as part of the Affordable Care Act.  The decision came after a report issued by CCRC Actuaries estimated that expanding Medicaid would provide health insurance coverage to an estimated 91,000 West Virginians. Over the next ten years (2014 to 2023), the report estimates that…

The federal government released data today showing the cost of procedures at hospitals in all 50 states that are paid by Medicare. See news stories here and here.  As this Wonkblog graph highlights, the good news is that providers in West Virginia tend to charge less than most states on a number of inpatient procedures.…

By any measure, expanding Medicaid is a win all the way around. Lives will be saved and the quality of life will be improved for tens of thousands of West Virginia families. Health care providers and other consumers will find relief from bearing the costs of uncompensated care. And West Virginia’s economy will benefit from…

Over the last several months, federal policymakers have been considering changing the inflation measure used to calculate the annual cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA) of Social Security payments from the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) with the chained-CPI.  On Friday, the U.S. Senate voiced opposition  to adopting the chained-CPI, although President Obama…

One of the biggest items of interest in Governor Tomblin's proposed FY 2014 budget is Medicaid. Base budget appropriations for Medicaid totaled $568 million, an increase of $142 million from FY 2013. This increase in base budget appropriations has created the perception that the state is spending $142 million more on Medicaid than it did…