Advancing health equity for children and adults with a critical tool: Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program Continuous Coverage
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Author(s):
- Whitener, Kelly, author Snider, Matthew, author
- Contributor(s):
- Georgetown University. Center for Children and Families. issuing body. UnidosUS, issuing body.
- Publication:
- Washington, DC : Georgetown University Health Policy Institute, Center for Children and Families, October 2021
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Continuity of Patient Care Health Equity Medicaid United States State Children's Health Insurance Program (U.S.)
- Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- The COVID-19 pandemic underscores the need for universal access to health care and exposes the ways that systemic racism diminishes access to both coverage and care. Maintaining affordable health coverage is essential to both reduce transmission of the virus and ensure that those impacted by COVID-19 have access to vaccinations and treatment now and in the future. While health inequities are leading to disproportionate suffering among Latinos and other communities of color, policymakers have an opportunity to learn from, and correct for, this failure. More specifically, policies that support continuous coverage for low- and moderate-income children covered by Medicaid and CHIP are an essential tool for minimizing disruptions in care and promoting health equity. Since January 2020, the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) has declared a COVID-19-related public health emergency (PHE), which was recently extended to January 16, 2022, and may be extended again. During the PHE, the federal government is paying an additional 6.2 percentage points for state Medicaid costs. In exchange for this additional federal money, states may not disenroll those who were enrolled as of March 18, 2020 or were subsequently enrolled. This “disenrollment freeze” has ensured continuous coverage for nearly all Medicaid beneficiaries. Yet the unwinding of this policy at the end of the PHE could lead to thousands of eligible beneficiaries losing health insurance. Adopting 12 months of continuous eligibility for all children in Medicaid would help to mitigate potential coverage losses at the end of the PHE. In addition to possible state action, Congress has considered various bills in recent years that would provide for 12 months of continuous coverage for children in Medicaid and CHIP. The measure is also included in the House Reconciliation bill currently being considered in Congress. As explained below, it is also important that adults with Medicaid have continuous coverage. Under current law, states may adopt 12-month continuous eligibility for adults. However, they must do so through a more burdensome waiver process, which only two states have done to date. To encourage more states to implement 12-month continuous eligibility for adults, Congress should update the Medicaid statute to give states the option to adopt this policy through a simpler process.
- Copyright:
- Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY license. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (12 pages))
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 9918334380806676 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918334380806676