The Joint Economic Committee (JEC) issued a new report that looks at the benefits of closing the Medicaid coverage gap.
In the 11 states that have not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, the report found that 2.2 million workers who earn above their state’s Medicaid eligibility threshold but below the poverty line are ineligible for both Medicaid and for ACA tax credits to buy insurance.
Closing the Medicaid gap would provide health coverage for those 2.2 million currently ineligible for any federal health insurance support. It would also narrow racial gaps in health access and deliver benefits to a broad and diverse low-income population.
The report said the Medicaid coverage gap results from Republican state officials not accepting federal funding to expand their state Medicaid programs.
“The Medicaid coverage gap should never have existed, but because some Republican lawmakers have refused to accept generous federal support, millions of low-income families are currently blocked from accessing affordable health insurance because of the state where they live. Closing the Medicaid coverage gap through congressional action, like the Build Back Better Act, would expand access to affordable health insurance to millions of families and address pervasive racial health and economic disparities that threaten the foundation of our economy and our society,” Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA), chair of the JEC, said.
JEC members Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) and Reps. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) and Carolyn Bourdeaux (D-GA) also spoke of the critical need to address the Medicaid coverage gap.
“Dr. King once said that of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane. This new report shines a bright light not just on how the refusal of state leaders in Georgia to expand Medicaid is exacerbating inequality and hurting people in need of access to vital health care coverage but also how it is a missed opportunity to create good-paying jobs in our state, bolster our hospitals and health systems, and help improve Georgians’ financial security,” Warnock said.
According to the report, Medicaid expansion under the ACA saved nearly 20,000 lives in just the four years after enactment, reduced medical debt sent to collections by $6 billion, and increased the number of preventative care visits in expansion states by 41 percent.
“The Medicaid coverage gap has left millions of vulnerable Americans without access to health care through no fault of their own. One of the most important provisions in the Build Back Better Act would ensure that Americans who are currently stuck in the coverage gap have access to quality, affordable health care,” Pallone, chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said.
The report found that 60 percent of people in the coverage gap are people of color, so closing it will narrow racial disparities in coverage and health outcomes.