Joan Alker

1 month ago | michiganadvance.com | Phil Galewitz |Joan Alker

In Washington’s debate over enacting steep funding cuts to Medicaid, words are a central battleground. Many Republican lawmakers and conservative policy officials who want to scale back the joint state-federal health program are using charged language to describe it. Language experts and advocates for Medicaid enrollees say their word choice is misleading and aims to sway public opinion against the popular, 60-year-old government program in a bid to persuade Congress to cut funding.

2 months ago | kansasreflector.com | Clay Wirestone |Joan Alker |Benjamin O. Anderson

In the public debate over Medicaid expansion in Kansas, a critical fact often gets lost: Large numbers of residents already depend on the program. What’s more, despite racist stereotypes, those benefiting from the program live mostly in rural areas. A new report from Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families sketches the present system and makes clear the threat of potential Medicaid cuts from Congress.

Jan 15, 2025 | ccf.georgetown.edu | Joan Alker

Medicaid is the backbone of many aspects of our health care system including paying for the majority of nursing home residents, covering 40 to 50 percent of children and births depending on where you live, people with disabilities and other low-income people. Medicaid covers almost 80 million people in total – roughly four times as many people as covered by the ACA Marketplaces and considerably more than the roughly 48 million seniors covered by Medicare.

Jan 15, 2025 | ccf.georgetown.edu | Joan Alker |Aubrianna Osorio |Edwin Park

Non-elderly adults and children in small towns and rural areas are more likely than those living in metro areas to rely on Medicaid/CHIP for their health insurance. As a consequence, reductions in federal Medicaid funding being contemplated in Congress are more likely to cause greater harm to rural areas and small towns than metro areas. For children this is especially true in Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, South Carolina, California, Minnesota, Georgia, South Dakota, and Alaska.

Jan 9, 2025 | ccf.georgetown.edu | Edwin Park |Joan Alker

As we have previously written, since the November election, Congressional Republican leaders have been increasingly open about their intent to make deeply damaging cuts to Medicaid. Now, at a caucus retreat on January 4th, House Republicans actively discussed policy options to cut federal Medicaid spending — including converting Medicaid to a per capita cap — for inclusion in budget reconciliation legislation this year, according to both Politico and Axios.