John,

Two million low-income Americans are still uninsured due to 12 states refusing to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act―this is known as the Medicaid coverage gap. At the same time, without congressional action, 13 million Americans who are covered under the ACA will see skyrocketing health care premiums at the end of this year.

Thankfully, Congress is working on a solution. But they need to hear from us if they’re going to act.

Write to your senators and representative and tell them to extend ACA subsidies to stop skyrocketing health care costs for millions of Americans and expand these subsidies to fully cover the 2 million low-income Americans who fall into the Medicaid coverage gap.

Right now, the health outcomes of low-income people in states that have expanded Medicaid are starkly different than in the 12 states that have not.

In states that have expanded Medicaid, low-income people are seeing improved access to health care, including prenatal and preconception services. This has led to reduced rates of maternal death, particularly among Black women.

In the states that have not expanded Medicaid, people of color make up 60% of folks falling in the coverage gap, even as working-age Black and brown people make up just 41% of the adult (non-elderly) population.

This injustice in health access also reflects economic, educational, and housing injustices, which lead to a cycle of poverty generation after generation. In 2019, 810,000 women of reproductive age living below the poverty line were uninsured with no pathway to affordable health coverage. The majority live in the south where states have not expanded Medicaid. Twenty-nine percent were Black and 33% Latina.¹

Call on Congress to extend ACA subsidies to prevent skyrocketing health care premiums for 13 million Americans and to expand ACA subsidies to cover 2 million uninsured people who fall into the Medicaid coverage gap!

Congress must act before health insurance providers set next year’s premiums later this summer.

Thank you for taking action today,

Deborah Weinstein
Executive Director, Coalition on Human Needs

¹ https://www.cbpp.org/blog/rounding-up-the-top-five-reasons-congress-should-close-the-coverage-gap