Dear allies,

We’re still keeping an eye out for updates on the public charge rule. In the meantime, read on to learn more about our plan for the end of the public health emergency, the latest investment in healthcare navigators, and a webinar opportunity for Spanish-speaking enrollment assisters from our partners at The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Preparing for the End of the PHE

When the public health emergency ends, Medicaid programs will need to redetermine eligibility for about 81 million people. As a result, millions of people could lose health coverage, some because they are no longer eligible, but also many because they did not successfully complete the renewal process.  Immigrants and their families will experience additional challenges—such as language barriers, or requests for information that is unnecessary and difficult to provide—maintaining coverage during this time. PIF is working with partners to help reduce the loss of coverage for immigrants and their families by:

• Educating our network about what the end of the PHE means for immigrants and their families
• Sharing state advocacy tips to improve retention of coverage
• Creating a real-time feedback loop to identify problems as renewals start and identify “course corrections”
• Supporting research that tracks the impact on immigrants and their families

Please stay tuned for ways you can be engaged in this work. 

Biden-Harris Administration Invests Nearly $100 million in Navigators Ahead of HealthCare.gov Open Enrollment Period

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), is investing $98.9 million in grant funding to 59 returning Navigator organizations for the 2023 Open Enrollment Period to help consumers navigate enrollment through the Marketplace, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and make health coverage more equitable and accessible to everyone. Many of the awardees are immigrant-serving organizations, including PIF Active Member Arab Community Center for Economic & Social Services (ACCESS).These awards will enable Navigator organizations to retain staff and add to the more than 1,500 existing Navigators who were trained to help consumers find affordable, comprehensive health coverage in nearly every HealthCare.gov state and county during the 2022 open enrollment period. 

Registration Now Open: Webinar for Spanish-Speaking Assisters

Registration is now open for CBPP’s first-ever Beyond the Basics webinar in Spanish: Asistiendo a consumidores hispanos a obtener cobertura médica: consejos y mejores prácticas (Helping Spanish Speaking Consumers Get Health Coverage: Tips and Best Practices), which will be on Thursday October 20 from 2-3:15pm ET.

This new webinar will cover how to explain health insurance concepts to clients who speak Spanish, common application and eligibility issues for people who are in families with mixed immigration statuses, and the essentials of plan design and comparison. There will also be some time for questions from the audience.

In Solidarity,

Adriana Cadena & Cheasty Anderson, on behalf of the PIF Team

Visit us at https://pifcoalition.org/