Gideon Lukens

The 2025 reconciliation law instituted a harmful policy taking Medicaid coverage away from people not meeting a harsh work requirement, and the Trump Administration recently finalized a rule that will make the policy even more harmful.[1] In particular, the new rule makes it harder for people to qualify for an exemption from the work requirement due to medical frailty, which includes: blindness or disability; substance use disorder; disabling mental disorder; physical, intellectual, or...

On Tuesday, September 10, the Census Bureau will release household income, poverty, and health insurance figures for 2023 from the Current Population Survey (CPS). The data may include notable good news, including record low shares of people uninsured along with rising income and falling poverty after accounting for inflation.

People in the coverage gap are racially and ethnically diverse, and 65 percent are people of color. More than 1.6 million uninsured adults are stuck in the Medicaid “coverage gap,” with no path to affordable health coverage. They have incomes below the federal poverty level (FPL) — too low to qualify for financial help in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces — yet they don’t qualify for Medicaid because they live in one of the ten states that have not adopted the ACA Medicaid expansion.