Medicaid

• Nation Celebrates One Year Since American Rescue Plan Became Law

  March 11, 2022: Exactly one year ago, on March 11, 2021, President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan (ARP) into law to address the health and economic crises caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, this important legislation has been the cornerstone of the ...Read more >

• Apple, Bose and Others Pump Up the Volume on Hearing Aid Options, Filling Void Left by FDA

  August 31, 2021: Spurred by decades of complaints about the high cost of hearing aids, Congress passed a law in 2017 to allow over-the-counter sales, with hopes it would boost competition and lower prices. Four years later, federal regulators have yet to issue...Read more >

• House Passes Budget Resolution Agreement

  August 30, 2021: The House passed a $3.5 trillion budget blueprint on Tuesday with a 220-212 party-line vote, paving the way for Democrats to pass a robust spending package that will invest in families, retirees, and seniors. The package will include allowing Medicar...Read more >

• Alliance Members Continue to Commemorate Medicare, Social Security Anniversaries

  August 09, 2021: U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (NY) both participated in a Celebration of Progress, recognizing the anniversaries of the enactment of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the Americans with Disabilities Act l...Read more >

• American Medical Debt Twice as High as Previously Thought, Concentrated in States Without Medicaid Expansion

  July 26, 2021: New research published Tuesday in The Journal of the American Medical Association finds that collection agencies held $140 billion in unpaid medical bills last year - a number that has grown rapidly in just a few years. An earlier study examining deb...Read more >

• Pandemic Swells Medicaid Enrollment to 80 Million People, a ‘High-Water Mark’

  June 24, 2021: The pandemic-caused recession and a federal requirement that states keep Medicaid beneficiaries enrolled until the national emergency ends swelled the pool of people in the program by more than 9 million over the past year, according to a report re...Read more >

• KHN: Biden Seeks $400 Billion to Buttress Long-Term Care. A Look at What’s at Stake.

  April 12, 2021: There’s widespread agreement that it’s important to help older adults and people with disabilities remain independent as long as possible. But are we prepared to do what’s necessary, as a nation, to make this possible? That’s the challenge...Read more >

• News: American Rescue Plan Can Expand Medicaid in States That Have Refused Funds

  April 09, 2021: The newly enacted American Rescue Plan is dramatically shifting the debate in several states that have refused federal funding to expand Medicaid through the Affordable Care Act. The new law includes additional funding for two years for new states th...Read more >

• KHN: Covid Cases Plummet 83% Among Nursing Home Staffers Despite Vaccine Hesitancy

  March 15, 2021:   Joan Phillips, a certified nursing assistant in a Florida nursing home,  loved her job but dreaded the danger of going to work in the pandemic. When vaccines became available in December, she jumped at the chance to get one. Months ...Read more >

• KHN: Reopening of Long-Term Care Facilities Is ‘an Absolute Necessity for Our Well-Being’

  March 08, 2021:   For nearly a year, nursing homes and assisted living centers have been mostly closed to visitors. Now, it’s time for them to open back up and relieve residents of crushing isolation, according to a growing chorus of long-term care exp...Read more >