By Jesse C. Baumgartner and Laurie Zephyrin, Photo: John Moore/Getty Images, The Commonwealth Fund, February 2, 2022
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) led to historic insurance coverage gains and reduced racial and ethnic disparities, but our recent scorecard report on racial health equity shows that large gaps remain in nearly every state.
Black and Latino/Hispanic people, along with American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN) people, are much less likely than white people to have health insurance. Evidence shows that expanding coverage is not only essential for facilitating equitable access to health care, but also is associated with improved mortality outcomes, poverty reductions, and protection from debilitating financial bills.
With the Build Back Better Act (BBBA) now stalled in the U.S. Senate, further progress in reducing disparities is at risk. In this post we focus on three policies that would promote a stronger and more equitable health insurance system: ensuring continuous postpartum coverage in Medicaid for low-income people, providing coverage to people in the Medicaid expansion gap, and extending the increase in marketplace premium subsidies established under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).
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