KC Star: Does narrow victory in Oklahoma set stage for Missouri Medicaid expansion vote?

By Matthew Kelly | July 3, 2020 A win is a win, but supporters of Missouri Medicaid expansion caution against reading too much into Tuesday’s election results in Oklahoma, where voters agreed to extend eligibility for the low-income health care program by a slender 1% margin. Oklahoma became the 37th state to endorse Medicaid expansion […]

Medicaid Expansion Linked With Fewer Late-Stage Breast Cancers

By Leah Lawrence | July 1, 2020 The expansion of Medicaid as part of the Affordable Care Act was associated with an almost 10% absolute reduction in the number of patients with breast cancer without insurance, and a significant reduction in the number of women diagnosed with late-stage disease, researchers reported. Using data from almost […]

Politico: Oklahoma voters approve Medicaid expansion as coronavirus cases climb

By Rachel Roubein | July 1, 2020 Oklahoma voters on Tuesday narrowly approved a ballot measure to extend Medicaid to tens of thousands of poor adults, making their state the first to expand government-backed health insurance during the pandemic. The vote, which passed with 50.5 percent support, also throws a wrench in the Trump administration’s […]

Emporia Gazette: Health Care Controversy in Kansas

By Bob Grover and Jim Calvert | June 18, 2020 A continuing health care controversy in Kansas is whether or not to expand KanCare. Here we summarize the issue and where we stand today. One of the legacies left to us by former president Barack Obama was a medical insurance program frequently called “Obamacare” (actual […]

KSN: ‘We cannot afford not to expand Medicaid’: COVID-19 brings concerns for the uninsured

By Korinne Griffith | June 17, 2020 TOPEKA, Kan. (KSNW) – For the 14 states that have not expanded Medicaid, hundreds of thousands of people are without health insurance. According to the Journal of General Internal Medicine, more than 18 million Americans who are at an increased risk of getting a severe form of the […]

HealthLeaders: Medicaid Expansion Could Have Covered an Additional 4M People in 2020

By Melanie Blackman | June 9, 2020 If 15 states had expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), an additional 3.9 million people would have been insured in 2020, according to a report released by the Urban Institute Monday. The study, supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, made estimations using the Health Insurance […]

How the Affordable Care Act Has Narrowed Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Access to Health Care

The insurance coverage expansion ushered in by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has significantly increased Americans’ ability to get the health care they need since the law’s main provisions went into effect in 2014. Research also indicates that the ACA narrowed racial and ethnic disparities in insurance coverage1 — a key objective of the law, […]

NPR: What Do Coronavirus Racial Disparities Look Like State By State?

By Maria Godoy | May 30, 2020 In April, New Orleans health officials realized their drive-through testing strategy for the coronavirus wasn’t working. The reason? Census tract data revealed hot spots for the virus were located in predominantly low-income African-American neighborhoods where many residents lacked cars. In response, officials have changed their strategy, sending mobile […]