Dear John, 

In this week’s newsletter:

• Major Gaps in States’ Medicaid Performance
• Congressional Letter on ACA/DACA

States resumed Medicaid eligibility re-assessments last April, for the first time since the pandemic began. PIF recently conducted a survey of advocates and community organizations, asking how their states performed on key issues for immigrant families. Our survey report, released yesterday, finds major gaps in states’ performance, which put health care access for millions at risk. 

Responding to these findings, PIF sent a letter to CMS on Thursday, November 17th, urging the federal agency that administers Medicaid to pause “unwinding” implementation in states that have failed to lower known barriers facing immigrant families. The letter was signed by 40 members of PIF’s Steering Committee and Medicaid Unwinding Task Force.

Please join us for a webinar on Thursday, December 14 at 12:30pm ET / 9:30am PT to learn more about the threat to immigrant families, what PIF is doing to protect health care access, and how your organization can help. PIF speakers will provide an overview of the findings, and we’ll get a frontline perspective from PIF members:

• Justin Gust, El Centro, Kansas
• Vanessa Zapata, Tennessee Justice Center
• Kate Purrington, Health Law Advocates, Massachusetts

Register for the Webinar

PIF was pleased to see that, last week, many members of Congress called on the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to finalize their proposed rule to expand health coverage for those participating in the DACA program. Led by Representatives Lee, Castro, and Jayapal, and Senators Booker and Durbin, these and other lawmakers requested that the Biden Administration address the following questions: 

1. What is preventing HHS from finalizing the rule, and how can congressional allies help address any barriers? 
2. When the rule is finalized, what resources will your administration devote to ensuring newly eligible people are aware of their health coverage options? The preamble of the proposed rule stated, “implementation of these changes would be most effective during a period when there are many outreach and enrollment activities occurring.” The time to finalize this policy and expand health coverage is now.

Read the Letter

Visit our website at www.pifcoalition.org

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