On February 5, 2024, the House Rules Committee held a hearing discussing the use of quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) in healthcare methodologies. The bill under discussion would ban using quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) and other measures to make coverage and payment decisions in all federal health care programs.
The KFF report on Health Coverage by Race and Ethnicity underscores the crucial role of health insurance coverage in accessing healthcare services and mitigating excessive medical expenses. This blog post summarizes the report’s findings.
The KFF report reveals that disparities in coverage have been entrenched over time and, in some instances, have widened despite previous gains under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Notable improvements in health coverage were observed across various racial and ethnic groups between 2019 and 2022. These improvements primarily resulted from state and federal efforts to ensure affordable coverage during the COVID-19 pandemic.
States that expanded Medicaid, as highlighted in the KFF report, witnessed lower uninsured rates across racial and ethnic groups than non-expansion states.
The KFF report emphasizes concerns about potential disenrollment following the unwinding of Medicaid continuous enrollment post-pandemic. This raises concerns about its disproportionate impact on Hispanic, Black, AIAN, and NHOPI individuals, as highlighted in the report. Disenrolled individuals may face challenges accessing alternative coverage options, potentially exacerbating existing disparities.
The report highlights the following to prevent coverage losses and narrow disparities:
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On January 31, 2024, the House Energy and Commerce Committee Health Subcommittee held a hearing to discuss the growth in U.S. health care spending. Committee members discussed the need to create solutions to curb spending growth, discussing both bipartisan and partisan solutions to the issue.
On January 25, 2024, the Senate Special Committee on Aging held a hearing to examine challenges seniors and assisted living facilities experience in caregiving. The Committee discussed issues around workforce, safety, and private equity ownership in assisted living facilities.
Medicaid has been a hot topic in previous elections – but is it in 2024? The previous blog in our series on health care and the 2024 elections discussed the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the 2024 election. Today’s post will focus on Medicaid expansion and the 2024 election.
The ACA authorized the expansion of the Medicaid program to include working-age adults without children or disabilities. Although the Supreme Court ruled against mandating expansion, the battles over this policy did not end. They only shifted to the states.
These 2 charts show you the change. Blue is yes to Medicaid expansion. Orange is no to Medicaid Expansion. See how the blue grows over the time period between 2013 and today.
It’s worth noting that the growth in Medicaid expansion and the 2024 election intersect in a big way. As more states decide to expand Medicaid, the pathway to 270 electoral votes increasingly depends on appealing to voters who have gained health insurance coverage because of Medicaid expansion.
For example, let’s look at North Carolina. According to a press release from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, more than 600,000 North Carolinians are now newly eligible for Medicaid coverage.
In 2020, North Carolina went for former President Trump, but his margin of victory was less than 100,000 votes. It begs the question of how many of these voters could flip to President Biden in 2024 and whether it could be enough to flip the state.
Even among more Trump-friendly states, the growth of Medicaid expansion could impact returns in 2024. For example, President Trump won 61.8% of the vote in South Dakota in 2020 with 261,043 votes compared to Biden’s 150,471. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, more than 52,000 South Dakotans can now enroll in Medicaid. Might more South Dakotans vote for Biden in 2024? Maybe. We don’t expect South Dakota, whose state government is redder than red to give Biden any votes in the electoral college. South Dakota has not voted for a Democratic presidential nominee since 1964. But post-election polling in November may provide some insight into how Medicaid expansion played into voters’ behavior this year.
What, if any, implications are there in states that have not expanded Medicaid. Interestingly, the Kaiser Family Foundation conducted a poll in March 2023 showing that two-thirds of residents in non-expansion states are supportive of expansion.
President Biden and former President Trump have a record regarding policies related to Medicaid expansion. As the list of Medicaid expansion states grows, so does the importance of how the leading presidential candidates talk about this issue. Ultimately, it will be up to the candidates to decide how much to talk about the issue of Medicaid expansion and what to say. And, of course, the American people have the final say. As Alexander Hamilton put it, “Here, sir, the people govern; here they act by their immediate representatives.”
