On August 30, 2023, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) sent a letter to all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands requiring them to determine whether they have an eligibility systems issue that could cause people, especially children, to be disenrolled from Medicaid or the Children’s
On July 25th, the Biden Administration and U.S. Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Treasury released proposed rulemaking for the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) with the goal of holding private insurance companies accountable for mental health and addiction services coverage and increasing parity between physical health coverage and mental
The Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison conducted a webinar to enhance poverty measurement in the United States. The panel of experts proposed elevating the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) to become the Principal Poverty Measure (PPM), which would include health insurance and child care as essential needs in addition to traditional
On July 25th, 2023, the Food Research & Action Center released a nutrition report, “Hunger Doesn’t Take a Vacation: Summer Nutrition Status Report 2023." The report emphasized the importance of summer nutrition programs to reduce food insecurity, especially during the summer and highlighted that participation in these programs declined from July 2021 to July 2022
With just one week left until the August recess, Congress has continued to make progress on a number of their top priorities for this year. Both the House and Senate have moved funding bills through various subcommittees and the full Appropriations committees; the House Rules committee has announced consideration of two of the Appropriations bills
On July 20th, 2023, the Senate Appropriations Committee held a full committee markup of Fiscal Year 2023 on Energy and Water Development, State and Foreign Operations, and Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development Appropriations Acts to discuss and make any amendments to the bills. The Chair and Senator Murray gave an opening statement commending bipartisan efforts
On July 18th, 2023, the Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services held a hearing, “Why Expanding Medicaid to DACA Recipients Will Exacerbate the Border Crisis” to discuss the potential impacts on Medicaid expansion. Chairwoman McClain (R-MI) argued Medicaid expansion to DACA recipients is illegal, not supported by the American people, and high costs using
On July 19, 2023, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce held a markup of fifteen health bills for the SUPPORT Act Reauthorization. H.R. 4056, the Ensuring Medicaid Continuity for Children in Foster Care Act, was not fully included, but compromise language on this bill was added as an amendment in the nature of substitute
In response to the growing mental health crisis in the United States, Representatives Paul Tonko (D-NY), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Don Bacon (R-NE), Mary Peltola (D-AK), and Kathy Castor (D-FL) introduced HR 3073 the Community Mental Wellness and Resilience Act of 2023 (CMWRA), on May 2, 2023. The bill aims to address the urgent need for
On July 19, 2023, the Center for American Progress hosted an event titled “Health Equity in Early Childhood Policy” that facilitated a discussion about how policymakers can address inequality in health policy to create legislation that effectively serves all children. The panelists agreed that the most urgent need is to include community members in conversations