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sarah huckabee sanders
Wyden Says GOP Medicaid Purge Puts 'Politics Before Children's Health'
New government data indicates that just nine Republican-led states are responsible for 60% of Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program disenrollments since April.
Dec 19, 2023
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden ripped GOP governors on Monday for endangering the well-being of kids in their states for political purposes as they gut their Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program rolls at an alarming clip, sparking pushback from the Biden administration and healthcare advocates.
"Unfortunately, it's clear that too many Republican governors have chosen to put politics before children's health," Wyden (D-Ore.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said in a statement after the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released new data showing that a small handful of GOP-led states account for the majority of Medicaid and CHIP disenrollments since April.
That month, the federal government began allowing states to resume eligibility checks and disenrollments that were paused during the Covid-19 pandemic. The health policy nonprofit KFF has estimated based on available data that 71% of those kicked off Medicaid across the U.S. since April have lost coverage for procedural reasons, such as a paperwork error.
Wyden said it's "encouraging" that HHS is giving governors "the opportunity to do right by the families they cover" and pledged to work with President Joe Biden's administration to "ensure everything possible is done to protect coverage for families walking an economic tightrope."
According to the HHS analysis, nine Republican-led states are responsible for roughly 60% of Medicaid and CHIP disenrollments this year: Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Montana, New Hampshire, Ohio, South Dakota, and Texas. Additionally, HHS said the 10 states that have not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act "have disenrolled more children than those that have expanded combined."
"States must take bold action to prevent a large increase in their uninsured child population. Three million losing Medicaid and counting is a terrible way to ring in the new year."
In letters to the nine states' GOP governors, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra urged them to "ensure that no child in your state who still meets eligibility criteria for Medicaid or CHIP loses their health coverage due to 'red tape' or other avoidable reasons as all states 'unwind' from the Medicaid continuous enrollment provision that was in place during much of the Covid-19 public health emergency."
"HHS takes its oversight and monitoring role during the renewals process extremely seriously," Becerra added, "and will not hesitate to take action to ensure states' compliance with federal Medicaid requirements."
Becerra suggested a few strategies aimed at improving the states' often byzantine renewal processes, including boosting auto-renewals and engaging in more active outreach efforts to make sure families know how to keep their coverage.
At least one state leader, Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas, signaled she has no intention of acting on Becerra's recommendations.
"The failing Biden admin sent letters to GOP-led states in a politically motivated PR stunt, accusing us of restricting Medicaid access. That's false," Sanders, who served as former President Donald Trump's press secretary, wrote on social media in response to Becerra's letter. "Arkansas is in compliance with state and federal law, while Biden plays politics at Christmas."
Arkansas has worked aggressively to curb its Medicaid rolls this year, stripping more than 427,000 people of coverage in just six months. In September alone, more than 21,000 people were removed from the program for not returning their enrollment paperwork, according to state data.
The nationwide Medicaid purge that began in April has been described as "the largest concentration of health insurance loss in American history," and both Republican governors and the Biden administration have faced criticism for failing to prevent disaster.
Georgetown University's Center for Children and Families (CCF) estimates that, as of Monday, more than 3 million children have been disenrolled from Medicaid since eligibility checks resumed in the spring.
"In 2022, 3.9 million children were uninsured, so even if the majority of children losing Medicaid have other sources of coverage, the number of uninsured children is rising sharply," CCF executive director Joan Alker wrote in a blog post on Monday. "States must take bold action to prevent a large increase in their uninsured child population. Three million losing Medicaid and counting is a terrible way to ring in the new year."
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Arkansas Schools Will Teach AP African American Studies, Defying GOP Law
Educators will teach the course despite the fact that the law also weakens rules protecting them against unjust dismissals.
Aug 17, 2023
Despite a threat this week by the Arkansas Department of Education that it would not allow students to receive credit for Advanced Placement African American Studies, every public high school in Arkansas that previously offered the course announced that it will remain on their schedules for the coming school year.
The Arkansas Education Association, which represents unionized teachers across the state, applauded the Little Rock School District's decision on Wednesday to continue offering the AP course in defiance of Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders' signature law banning so-called "indoctrination" in public schools.
April Reisma, president of the union, told The New York Times that the school district's decision was "bold" considering the law, called the Arkansas LEARNS Act, also repealed decades-old laws that protected teachers from being dismissed without notice.
Teachers who will offer the class "are very scared," Reisma told the Times. "They can be let go at any moment for any reason."
Earlier this week, the state Education Department said if schools proceed with AP African American studies, the course would not count as credit toward graduation, and said it will not provide students with assistance if they can't afford the $98 fee to take the final test.
In a letter to students and parents on Wednesday the Little Rock School District (LRSD) said the class "will be weighted the same as all other AP courses" and that the district will cover the cost of taking the exam.
"Our educators are committed to providing engaging and thought-provoking lessons that encourage critical thinking, empathy, and a deep appreciation for cultural diversity," said the district.
In addition to Little Rock Central High School—the first in the nation to be racially integrated in 1957, over the objections of racist white people—high schools in Jonesboro, Jacksonville, and North Little Rock also said they will offer the course.
Huckabee Sanders' move banning the teaching of material that "would indoctrinate students with ideologies" followed a similar law in Florida. In July, a federal judge blocked another law passed by Arkansas' Republican Legislature which criminalized librarians who distributed materials that were deemed "harmful to minors."
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Federal Judge Blocks Arkansas Law Criminalizing Librarians
"Do Arkansans still legally have access to reading materials? Luckily, the judicial system has once again defended our highly valued liberties," said the head of the state ACLU.
Jul 30, 2023
A federal judge on Saturday temporarily blocked the implementation of an Arkansas law criminalizing librarians and booksellers who provide access to materials deemed "harmful to minors."
U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks—an appointee of former President Barack Obama—issued a preliminary injunction against two sections of Act 372 (also known as S.B. 81), a censorship bill introduced by Arkansas state Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-20), passed by the Republican-controlled state Legislature, and signed into law by GOP Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders in March.
The law—which would have gone into effect on Tuesday—makes it a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in prison to provide to a minor material "that to the average person, applying contemporary community standards, the dominant theme of the material taken as a whole appeals to prurient interest."
The legislation also allows parents and legal guardians to access minors' library records.
Brooks' temporary injunction against Act 372 applies to Section 3—which criminalizes librarians and booksellers for providing access to materials deemed "harmful to minors"—and Section 5, which requires libraries to establish material review processes and empowers courts to compel libraries to remove materials that may be protected by the First Amendment.
"If merely having a book accessible on the shelf where a minor can reach it will potentially subject librarians and booksellers to criminal penalties, such books may simply be removed," Brooks wrote in his 49-page ruling. "As a result, these patrons claim their First Amendment right to access non-obscene (i.e., constitutionally protected) reading material will be dramatically curtailed."
In May, the Central Arkansas Library System (CALS) led a lawsuit against the legislation. CALS executive director Nate Coulter said he is "extremely pleased and gratified" by Brooks' ruling.
"I'm relieved that for now the dark cloud that was hanging over CALS' librarians has lifted—they will not be threatened with jail for making books available to our patrons," Coulter told the Arkansas Advocate.
ACLU of Arkansas Executive Director Holly Dickson also welcomed the ruling, saying in a statement that "we commend the court's decision to stop the enforcement of Sections 3 and 5 of Act 372, which would have jeopardized the essential First Amendment rights of all residents of Arkansas."
"It's regrettable that we even have to question whether our constitutional rights are still respected today," Dickson added. "The question we had to ask was, do Arkansans still legally have access to reading materials? Luckily, the judicial system has once again defended our highly valued liberties."
Earlier this year, the American Library Association said that a record-breaking 2,571 unique titles were challenged by people or groups seeking bans in 2022, a 38% increase from the previous year.
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