Health Reform's Next Steps: A new policy brief from the Kaiser Family Foundation explains the key issues in the Supreme Court's recent ruling upholding the Affordable Care Act. The brief examines the Court's affirmation that the individual mandate is constitutional and explains the justices' more complex decision to limit the law's enforcement mechanism for the Medicaid expansion while allowing the overall expansion of that program to go forward. It also looks ahead to the implementation of health reform now that questions about the constitutionality of the law have been resolved. (10 pp.)
Medicaid Expansion and the States: A number of Republican governors have announced that they will not expand Medicaid coverage under the ACA. Some would argue that those governors are rejecting the initial 100% federal funding which phases down to 90% by 2020 on political principle. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has issued a Medicaid Expansion brief which contends that ACA's Medicaid expansion will add just 2.8 percent to what states spend on Medicaid, while providing health coverage to 17 million more low-income adults and children.
The Urban Institute has developed state-by-state numbers on how many individuals would not receive coverage if a state opts out of the ACA expansion.
Health Reform Enrollment Tool Kit: The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities released a toolkit to guide states in developing an eligibility and enrollment process that meets the requirements of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and ensures access for poor and near-poor families to other benefits such as nutrition assistance and child care subsidies. Coordinating Human Service Programs with Health Reform Implementation suggests that careful consideration of how households are connected to other benefits and services as part of the ACA coverage expansion could reduce inefficiencies in state administration of these programs and yield better outcomes for families. (179 pp.)
Psychotropic Medication Use by Children in Child Welfare: This HHS brief examinesthe use of psychotropic medications by children involved with the child welfare system (CWS). It asks the following questions: (1) What are the rates of psychotropic medication use by age among children living in-home and in foster care settings following a report of child abuse or neglect? (2) What are the rates of antipsychotic medication use by preschoolers, school-aged children, and adolescents involved with the CWS? and (3) What types of behavioral services do children involved with the CWS receive, including but not limited to psychotropic medications? (9 pp.)
CWS Spending Report: Child Trends has released Federal, State, and Local Spending to Address Child Abuse and Neglect in SFYS 2008 & 2010. The surveys give a state by state snap-shot of spending on child welfare services with details on where states are drawing federal funding from and how much in state dollars states are investing. A discussion of local investments is found on pages 31-33. Key findings include: Child welfare spending increased, but rate of growth slowed. Between 2006 and 2008, total spending increased by 1%, and between 2008 and 2010, expenditures increased 2% overall. The federal share of child welfare spending, for the first time in the survey's history, was lower than the share from state dollars in 2008. In 2008, federal funds accounted for 43% of all spending, while state dollars accounted for 45%, and local dollars for 12%. In 2010, Title IV-E accounted for 52% of all federal funds and represented the largest category of federal funds. The second largest federal funding stream for 2010 was Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF, 22% of all federal dollars spent on child welfare), followed by the Social Services Block Grant (12%), Medicaid (7%), Title IV-B (5%), and "other" (3%).
2009 TANF Data Released: The TANF Ninth Report to Congress has been added to the HHS Data and Reports page.
