Medicare / Medicaid

Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) provide health and long-term care coverage to almost 82 million low-income children, pregnant women, adults, seniors, and people with disabilities in the United States. Medicaid is a major source of funding for hospitals, community health centers, physicians, and nursing homes. States operate their Medicaid programs within federal

The Medicare Physician Fee Schedule is a big deal. The fee schedule determines what services are covered for what price. When setting the fee schedule, policymakers seek to balance a number of goals including ensuring that medically valuable services are covered by Medicare; setting prices high enough so that clinicians from a range of specialties

Mississippi is one of 10 states that haven’t expanded Medicaid, the state and federal health insurance program for people with low incomes or disabilities. Seven of those states are in the South. But as more conservative-leaning states like North Carolina adopt it, the drumbeat of support, as one Southern state lawmaker put it, grows louder.

Policymakers, researchers, and others have long called for reforms to improve the coordination of Medicare and Medicaid benefits for the people who receive health insurance coverage through both programs. People in this group, also known as dual-eligible individuals, have lower incomes, are more racially and ethnically diverse, and often face greater mental and physical health