By Sabrina Corlette, Georgetown University Center on Health Insurance Reform When Joshua Lemacks of Richmond, Virginia takes the field for one of his Little League games, the other team may not be overly impressed with his batting average stats, but those who know him realize that he has beaten extreme odds just to be standing on that field with his teammates. What the other team doesn’t know is that if Joshua and his parents hadn’t batted 1000 in his early years, he wouldn’t be alive today. Nine years ago, soon after Joshua was born, a fetal cardiologist came into the room with a box of...

By Kevin Lucia, Georgetown University Health Policy Institute's Center on Health Insurance Studies When a child turns two, it's natural to take stock of all the milestones they have achieved such as first steps, first words and first solid foods. Some parents are even organized enough to document all these achievements in a baby book. As the Affordable Care Act turns two, we have a scrapbook of sorts to share with you on all that the ACA has achieved in its 24 months of existence . Just as it takes a village to raise a child, it took three of us here at the Georgetown Health Policy Institute...

Cathy Hope edits Say Ahhh! A Children's Health Policy Blog by Georgetown University's Center for Children and Families By Cathy Hope, Georgetown University Center for Children and Families NPR reporter Nina Totenberg tells the story of how Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan briefly met her sister the day she learned she was pregnant. He got caught up in the excitement and about eight months later, he asked Nina about when the baby was due. When he learned that Nina’s new niece, Clara, was already two weeks old, he quickly sent off a letter enthusiastically welcoming the newborn to the...

By Sue Berkowitz While South Carolina is often a state cited for being first on list for outcomes that are bad and last in those that are good, we have some surprisingly positive news. The South Carolina Medicaid director Tony Keck, in his 2012-13 budget request to Gov. Haley, asked for an additional $35 million in order to enroll another 70,000 children in Medicaid. Doing so would cut the number of kids without access to affordable health care in South Carolina almost by half. These children are already eligible for the program. This request is simply attempting to fund implementation of the...

By Tricia Brooks Consistently over the years, studies have shown a high level of satisfaction by parents whose children are covered by Medicaid or CHIP. So it's no surprise that a recent survey conducted by Lake Research Partners for CMS confirms this finding once again. What is somewhat surprising is that parents with kids enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP were more likely to be highly satisfied than parents whose children are covered by employer insurance. Two-thirds (66%) of parents with a child in Medicaid/CHIP say they are "very satisfied" with their coverage, compared to less than half (48...

By Rylin Rodgers, Lebanon, Indiana Being Matthew (age 14) and Laura’s (age 11) mom has been a remarkably life-expanding experience. One of the unexpected bonuses was a crash course followed by endless emergence learning about health care financing. When I was pregnant with Matthew, my husband and I felt well-prepared to meet the financial responsibilities of parenthood: we had college educations, owned a home, were blissfully without consumer debt and, via my husband’s job as a high school history teacher, had great private insurance. Six months later, as Matthew spent his first Christmas in...

Most of us can figure out ways to cutback on our energy consumption to reduce our expenditures at the gas pump but cutting back on health care is a bit trickier. We can’t very well stop our kids from getting sick and even if we could, it wouldn’t impact our premiums – insurers would just pocket the savings. But that’s about to change.

(In honor of the Superbowl, Say Ahhh! is hosting a Super Blog-Off to determine whether the Steeler Nation or Packer fans are doing a better job of Connecting Kids to Coverage. Please read both blogs and vote for your favorite by submitting a comment. Comments must be submitted by kick-off Sunday night. See Say Ahhh! for details on the competition.) As this photo attests, we are quite serious about making sure every child gets the best coverage. No baby should leave the hospital without health insurance or a Terrible Towel. Such a beautiful sight, new born babes swaddled in Terrible Towels. (...

Cross posted from Say Ahhh ! (Editor's Note: CHIPRA celebrates its second anniversary this week and Say Ahhh! is featuring guest blogs about how the law has impacted children and families in their states. Mary Wachtel of Voices for Ohio's Children is today's featured blogger. Ohio was also featured in CCF's 50-state survey of Medicaid and CHIP eligibility and enrollment released by Kaiser last month and Mary joined CCF at the report release event.) By Mary Wachtel, Voices for Ohio's Children Like others, I look forward every year to the release of the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the...