Health
No one should have to go without the medical care they need simply because they can’t afford it. Investments in Medicaid, ALL Kids, mental health care and other health services help Alabamians stay healthy and productive, and they lay the foundation for a future where all of our residents have a chance to thrive, regardless of their income or background.
Arise works to identify and eliminate the structural barriers that prevent many of our friends and neighbors across the state from accessing the health care they need. We examine how a variety of policy solutions, including Medicaid expansion, would help break down those walls and strengthen the health care infrastructure on which all Alabamians rely.
Featured Resources
Letters & Testimony
‘Alabama’s new catch-22’: Testimony from Alabama Arise’s Kimble Forrister against Alabama’s Medicaid work requirement plan
Arise executive director Kimble Forrister testified against Alabama’s proposed Medicaid work requirements waiver during a public forum on Monday, March 5, 2018, in Montgomery. Here is the full text of Forrister’s prepared remarks: When we compare Medicaid’s waiver proposal to DHR’s welfare reform proposal in 1996, what’s most striking is Medicaid’s lack of data. How [...]
Report
The impact of Alabama’s proposed Medicaid work requirement on low-income families with children
Alabama is seeking federal permission through a Section 1115 Medicaid demonstration waiver to require parents and caregivers who rely on Medicaid to work 20 to 35 hours a week, prove they are looking or training for a job or do community service before receiving Medicaid. This proposal targets the very poorest and most vulnerable families [...]
Fact Sheet
New Medicaid hurdles would create barriers to health in Alabama
The Trump administration is encouraging states to impose work requirements on “non-elderly, non-pregnant adult Medicaid beneficiaries who are eligible for Medicaid on a basis other than disability.” State Medicaid Commissioner Stephanie Azar told lawmakers the agency likely will seek approval for such a requirement this year. SB 140, sponsored by Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, and HB 331, [...]
Fact Sheet
Four reasons to oppose work requirements for Alabama Medicaid
(1) The vast majority of enrollees are children or otherwise exempt. Medicaid covers about 1 million Alabamians (roughly one in every five people in the state), and most of them are children. Almost all of the rest are seniors, pregnant women, or people with disabilities who would be exempt from work requirements. Only about 7.5 percent of [...]
Fact Sheet
Keep kids covered: Congressional inaction threatens ALL Kids coverage for Alabama children
Federal funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) has expired, and health coverage for millions of American kids is at stake. Despite a history of strong bipartisan support, Congress allowed a Sept. 30 deadline to pass without renewing federal funding for the program, which offers affordable coverage for children whose low- and moderate-income families don’t [...]
Fact Sheet
What’s at stake for Alabama Medicaid?
Our state simply can't afford any more Medicaid cuts. Alabama's Medicaid program is essential, and it has already been cut to the bone. More than 1 million people -- or one in five Alabamians -- have Medicaid coverage, and almost all of them are children, seniors, pregnant women, or people with disabilities. Medicaid covers thousands of [...]
Fact Sheet
A long-term budget fix includes Medicaid expansion
As Alabama lawmakers grapple to prevent devastating Medicaid cuts, the time is right to address a related threat to our state: the health coverage gap. Nearly 200,000 Alabama workers we depend on every day – in agriculture, food service, retail, home health and other fields – have no access to regular health care. They have no [...]
Fact Sheet
Health security for Alabama’s working families
Hundreds of thousands of uninsured Alabamians would qualify for Medicaid if Alabama expanded eligibility to adults with incomes up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level. (That's about $15,000 a year for individuals and $31,000 a year for a family of four.) Many hard-working Alabamians have no health coverage because they earn too much to [...]
Report
The State of Working Alabama 2014: Health coverage in Alabama: Where we’ve succeeded and where there’s work to do
Alabama has enjoyed great success in recent decades in ensuring that children and seniors have the health protection they need, according to a new Arise Citizens’ Policy Project report issued Tuesday as part of The State of Working Alabama 2014. But the state lags behind the nation when it comes to insuring young adults, nearly 30 percent [...]
Fact Sheet
No-frills Alabama Medicaid brings health care, jobs
Alabamians often are surprised to learn that Medicaid is a major engine for the state's economy. Medicaid creates thousands of jobs, supports rural hospitals and the state's only children's hospital, pays for medical equipment that all patients use, boosts tax revenue in local communities and enhances our quality of life. Medicaid touches the lives of average [...]
