“A self-imposed deadline is the worst reason to sacrifice quality in implementing what amounts to a revolutionary change in the way health services are delivered to Medicaid members in Kentucky. The month delay can actually be good news for Kentucky’s Medicaid members if the Cabinet uses October to guarantee a smooth, high-quality and personalized roll out. There is no question that the initial timeline was micro-waved in nature and in many aspects, the delay is [...]

Andrea Bennett, deputy director, at Kentucky Youth Advocates was selected by Governor Beshear to serve on the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange Advisory Board announced September 18, 2012. The Advisory Board will oversee the creation of the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange. Under the Affordable Care Act, each state will have an exchange to begin operation Jan. 1, 2014 which will serve as a marketplace to buy insurance. The exchange will assist employers with enrolling workers in [...]

The political atmosphere in Washington DC and Kentucky has been nothing but toxic since the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was enacted in March 2010. If you watch, listen to, or read the news, you know that to be true. But, do you know what kind of impact it has made? What has it done for families, and children? Yesterday, the Census Bureau released data that shows encouraging trends in healthcare. Over the last decade the [...]

In 2009, 10.1 million children and youth in the United States had been diagnosed with asthma at some point in their life. Asthma is the third-ranking cause of hospitalization among those younger than 15 years of age and one the leading causes of school absenteeism. As discussed in an earlier blog post, the current number and rate of Kentucky children experiencing inpatient hospitalizations due to asthma are lower than a decade ago. Source: American Lung [...]

The U.S. Supreme Court’s June ruling on the Affordable Care Act puts the decision of making Medicaid available to parents and childless adults up to 138% of the Federal Poverty Level in the hands of each state. This means Governor Beshear has as tough decision ahead of him. We want to make sure he knows that advocates for kids believe covering parents through Medicaid is the right thing to do for families in the Commonwealth. [...]