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Child support is a vital source of income that lifts millions of children out of poverty. Parents ordered to pay support should absolutely do so to the best of their ability. However, sometimes those parents face layoffs, illness, injury, or other factors that reduce their incomes to the point of poverty and an inability to pay their court-ordered support. Safety net programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as Food Stamps) can help meet the needs of these

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Sixteen low income Kentuckians last year challenged federal approval of Governor Bevin’s Medicaid waiver plan. In an opinion issued today, federal district Judge James Boasberg favored the plaintiffs for the second time, vacating the Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary’s approval of Kentucky’s 1115 Waiver known as Kentucky HEALTH. The judge’s ruling blocks implementation of the waiver, which was set to go into effect on April 1st.The judge ruled that demonstration

Like the magic ball of Waterford crystals on New York’s Times Square, Kentucky dropped its new regulation requiring the collection of Medicaid copays over the New Year weekend. The regulation isn’t all that remarkable because we pretty much already covered what it might say in a previous blog. For the most part, it simply removes the option of Medicaid Managed Care Organizations to waive the copays they’ve been allowed to charge—but haven’t seen a good business reason for doing so—for several

Since May, 10,097 Kentucky adults have lost food assistance as a result of new barriers to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participation erected by the state. Beginning in February, the state began reinstating, on a county-by-county basis, a three-month time limit on how long adults without a disability or dependents can receive SNAP benefits without working an average of 20 hours per week. Over 54,000 adults in 112 counties (including the 20 counties where time limits were in

Medicaid expansion has made an overwhelmingly positive impact on rural Kentucky. Our state was among the top three leaders in lowering our uninsured rate for low-income adults in rural areas and small towns. That rate dropped from 40 percent to 13 percent between 2008/09 and 2015/16, according to a new report from researchers at Georgetown University and the University of North Carolina. This may be the first time Kentucky has been a leader in anything other than cancer deaths and poor health

Following a federal court order to send Kentucky’s proposed barriers to Medicaid back to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), a 30 day comment period was held during which time 11,561 comments were submitted. Of those comments, 9,397 were unique and overwhelmingly unsupportive of the proposed Medicaid changes, known as an 1115 waiver. Of those comments expressing a clear opinion on the waiver, 8,438 or 96 percent were unsupportive while only 373 or 4 percent were supportive, as

When the Bevin Administration abruptly cut dental, vision and non-emergency transportation from the Medicaid expansion population, Kentucky Voices fro Health collected comments about the elimination and its impact on Kentuckians. Click here to read the letter to Medicaid Commissioner Jill Hunter and the full text of the comments.