The new Medicaid changes which were designed to narrow down the health coverage disparity in the US have unfortunately overlooked certain Americans, especially people of color.
According to a report of KFF, when the pandemic was going on, the number of insured non-elderly Americans under 65 had increased, with 3.4 million enrolling in health coverage from 2019 to 2022. This increase was mainly due to provisions from the Affordable Care Act, including those for Medicaid and the healthcare marketplace.
After the pandemic slowed, the Medicaid expansions were delayed in some states, insured rates dropped, and Black Americans continued to be more uninsured than white Americans, as per KFF.
Medicaid Changes
In 2022, 10% of Black Americans did not have insurance, while only 6.6% of white Americans were uninsured. This means Black people were 1.5 times more likely to be uninsured than white individuals.
For American Indian or Alaskan Native people, the probability of being uninsured was 2.9 times higher than for white individuals, and for Hispanic Americans, it was 2.7 times higher.
Recently, Jean Wagner from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities spoke on this topic and said that the major reason behind this racial coverage gap is that some states have not expanded their Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.
She added that in these states because of this failure to add Medicaid changes Black people cannot get the facilities of Medicaid as they do not meet the eligibility criteria.
Medicaid is a health insurance program for low-income individuals, that is being funded by the federal government and states.
The Affordable Care Act aims to ensure that Medicaid coverage is available to more people with lower incomes, but not all states have taken on these Medicaid changes.
The states that have not made these Medicaid changes or are without Medicaid expansion have more people who are uninsured, making people who are below the poverty line have few options left for coverage.
In 2022, 50% of Black Americans under 65 had insurance through an employer or private insurer, while Medicaid or another public option covered 40%.
The data released by the US Bureau of Blair Statistics show that the Black unemployment rates have always been higher than the national average and higher than other groups, meaning that fewer Black people have employer-based health insurance.
In fact, in January, Black unemployment increased to 5.3%, compared to the national average of 3.7% and a white unemployment rate of 3.4%.
Samantha Artiga, a director at KFF recently said that many Black people have full-time working family members, but are less likely than white people to have private coverage, due to usually being in low-income jobs that don’t offer health benefits.
According to KFF, those states that have not implemented the Medicaid changes such as the Medicaid expansion have 13.3% of non-elderly Black Americans without insurance, compared to 7.3% in states that have the expansion.
One of the changes that worsened the gap in uninsured rates was the end of a Medicaid provision in March 2023 that had led to millions losing coverage as they had to reenroll themselves.
Wagner said that many people are losing coverage due to administrative difficulties in the renewal process, such as not receiving the form or delays in state processing.
Since March, over 17.4 million people have lost their Medicaid or Children’s Health Insurance Program coverage, while more than 35 million had their coverage renewed, along with 41 million renewals pending or not yet due.
Extra Effort By West Oakland Health
West Oakland Health, established by four Black women in 1967, is a community health hospital trying to fill the coverage gap. Robert Phillips, CEO of WOH, said they saw fewer patients right after continuous enrollment ended.
Phillips and his team had started contacting their Medicaid patients, and he said that more patients were coming back as the centers reminded them to renew their coverage.
Phillip said that they are adding extra effort and want people to understand they can still get coverage, especially those who didn’t realize it because they received a notice saying their coverage expired.
WOH has five locations in California’s East Bay Area that help in providing affordable healthcare to minorities and low-income households as the majority of their patients are Black and have Medicaid coverage.
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