The Center for Health and Wellbeing (CHW) has dropped a new episode of The Princeton Pulse Podcast: “Why Millions of Americans May Lose Their Health Insurance”. The episode spotlights health insurance in the U.S. – and why an estimated 15 million Medicaid enrollees are at risk of losing their coverage and access to care.
In 2020, Congress enacted legislation that gave states extra Medicaid funds to help address the raging pandemic, but they attached a condition that prevented states from disenrolling individuals during the public health emergency. On March 31, 2023, the requirement expired and states began to return to normal eligibility and enrollment operations. Referred to as “the Medicaid unwinding,” this represents the biggest health insurance coverage event since the Affordable Care Act.
Host Heather Howard, a Princeton professor and former New Jersey Commissioner of Health and Senior Services, discusses the unprecedented transition with Kate McEvoy, Executive Director of the National Association of Medicaid Directors, and Dr. Kemi Alli, a pediatrician and Chief Executive Officer of Henry J. Austin Health Center, a federally qualified health center in Trenton, New Jersey. They talk about strategies for maximizing continuity of coverage for consumers – along with who is most likely to slip through the cracks, the roles of state health officials and health care providers, and the potential impact on public health.
You can find the episode on the CHW website, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other podcast platforms. The episode is also featured on CHW’s social media channels: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.