Issue Brief

The Improving Health Insurance Affordability Act Puts Affordable Health Care within Reach for Millions of Struggling Families

S. 499, the Improving Health Insurance Affordability Act of 2021 sponsored by Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), takes two significant steps to lower American health care costs: It ensures families c...

Free COVID-19 Vaccines and Treatments are Here: Why America’s Families Keep Paying

The COVID-19 pandemic provides a stark reminder that if any of us are sick, we are all at risk. Because we are all in this together, Americans have taken on the financial risk of investing tens of bil...

Affordable Medicines Are Still Elusive: America’s Families Want Fair Prices

Time and again, people in America recount the increasingly grim trade-offs they must make to afford health care. Today, one in every two people fears bankruptcy due to an unaffordable medical event. F...

Measuring and Improving the Quality of Medicaid-Funded Care to Reduce Disparities in Health and Health Care Outcomes: A Primer for Health Equity Advocates

Despite notable disparities in health status and access to high-quality health care in communities of color and other minority populations, the United States health care system has not prioritized ach...

Making Progress Toward Health Equity: Opportunities for State Policymakers to Reduce Health Inequities Through Payment and Delivery System Reform

In light of the stark disparities in COVID-19 illnesses and deaths among Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and other people of color, decision-makers must prioritize policy solutions that measurably improve ...

Trump Administration Reverses Course on Medicaid Maintenance of Effort Provisions, Clearing the Way for Devastating Cuts in the Midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic

In a reversal of its own guidance, the Trump Administration has released an interim final rule that would weaken protections for millions of Medicaid beneficiaries during the COVID-19 pandemic. Accord...

Modernizing Public Benefit Eligibility During the Coronavirus Pandemic: Long-Term Lessons and Short-Term Recommendations

The novel coronavirus has triggering the worst public health emergency in a century and the deepest economic collapse since the 1930s. Millions of middle-class families in America are thus seeking pub...

Key Protections for America’s Families Are at Risk: The Rushed Supreme Court Confirmation Is an Attack on Our Nation’s Health

Following the recent death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the rush to confirm President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee puts our nation’s health at grave risk. In the midst of the greatest public h...

Advancing CHW Engagement in COVID-19 Response Strategies: A Playbook for Local Health Departments

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the persistent inequities in health care access, quality, and cost throughout our country. In responding to the pandemic, local health departments must advance he...

2020 State Legislation on Prescription Drug Affordability

This summary outlines key state legislative actions in 2020 that rein in high drug prices and that advocates and lawmakers should watch and consider pushing for in 2021.