Healthcare Reform - Medicaid and CHIP Need Help

January 23, 2023

Jan 23, 2023

Good Day Healthcare Advocates

Every day we advocate for better healthcare for all of us is a good day. Thank you also to all of you advocates who have recently subscribed and to those who have asked for particular topics (use the comment button below). Some of the topics in work are the middlemen benefit managers and rural healthcare. Thank you.

Mission

The Healthcare delivery system in the United States is a patchwork that leaves much to be desired. It is the most expensive system among the top 35 industrial countries and covers far fewer participants delivering lower levels of quality care than many of our peer nations. This blog will provide:

Current problems in healthcare
Actions you can take
References

Current State of Affairs - Medicaid/CHIP Needs Help

Today NPR ran a story about Medicaid/CHIP Here’s a link so you can hear it.

A pandemic era rule allowed those on Medicaid and CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program) to be automatically re enrolled in the programs. The Biden administration was able to extend that automatic re enrollment but that will come to an end soon. What is the effect?

Currently, there are about 88M Americans who get their health insurance from these programs. That’s about 27% of the population. There is a Universal Healthcare Story there but that’s for another day. Right now the estimate is that when the automatic re enrollment expires about 6M Americans will lose their healthcare, not because they are no longer eligible but because they make errors in the applications, or are hard to locate due to homelessness or other personal and housing issues.

As an experiment I tried to see how hard it was using https://www.usa.gov/medicaid to apply.

I spent about 15 minutes trying to find the online application for one state. It was not easy. Paper forms were easier to find, but you need internet access and a printer and in some states have to prove your identity. So I did not get close to an application for about 20 minutes. It takes time and persistence and you have to be extra careful or you will be rejected. Remember, there are a lot of states who do not want a Medicaid program, they did not expand coverage for their poor residents, even though the cost was minimal.

So where are we? In September of 2022, the Biden administration, realizing that there was going to be a problem if the automatic re enrollment was not expanded, asked for a CMS rule change. There was a public comment period that ended in November 2022. About 7000 comments were received. This proposed rule is in evaluation and has Federal Regulations Docket number CMS-2022-0134. A final decision will be made by CMS in November of 2023. Does not help anyone today.

Summary: It is hard to enroll in Medicaid and CHIP and 6M poor Americans will lose access to doctors and prescriptions if we don’t get this rule put back in place. Keep in mind if we had Universal healthcare - cradle to grave, I could go back to playing the piano.

What You Can Do – Tell Congress to Push HHS and CMS to Act

Text SIGN PMWSID to 50409 to send the letter below to your state representatives and senators.

We all deserve a healthcare system that works for all of us, no exceptions, that means lower income people including children and families.. I want you, as my representative, to send a letter to the Health and Human Services head Javier Becerra ( xavier.becerra@hhs.gov ) and to Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure (Chiquita.Brooks-LaSure@cms.hhs.gov), tell them to implement CMS-2022-0134 now. These Americans should not be put at risk. Thank you, millions are depending on you.

PS If we had Universal Healthcare I would not be bothering you with this.

References