May 8, 2020
2:00 - 3:30 p.m. EST 

COVID-19 is an unprecedented crisis that has redirected our policy and healthcare bandwidth to unanticipated activities and profoundly engaged the public. The crisis has also caused us to question our policy priorities and our preparedness. But as past crisis have taught us, this new policy openness could have potentially lasting effects, reinforcing the necessity of getting our COVID-19 policy response right.   

This webinar featured a wide ranging set of experts that discussed the issues of emergency preparedness, the disparate effects on vulnerable populations, our new appreciation for coverage and the role of cost-sharing and ensuring that our new policy openness has a lasting, positive impact on Americans.

Welcome

• Lynn Quincy, Healthcare Value Hub (Moderator)

Past Disasters Illustrate Policy Opportunity & Danger 

• Annaliese Johnson, Communications & Policy Associate, Healthcare Value Hub

Lessons for Our Public Health System

• John Auerbach, President and CEO, Trust for America's Health

Ensuring Equal Protection for All

• Tekisha Dwan Everette, Executive Director, Health Equity Solutions

Universal, Quality Coverage as a Public Health Measure

• Joan Alker, Executive Director & Co-Founder, Center for Children and Families, Georgetown University Health Policy Institute

• Sabrina Corlette, Founder & Co-Director, Center on Health Insurance Reforms, Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy 

Maintaining Policy Gains During a Period of State Austerity

• Louisa Warren, Director of State Strategies and Engagement, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Questions & Answers

• Moderated by Lynn Quincy

• Webinar Slides
• Webinar Recording

As past crisis have taught us, potentially lasting policy effects can arise from COVID, reinforcing the need to prepare now for the post-COVID world we want to live in.

Strengthening Public Health: 

Public health is the best bang for our collective buck--it has consistently saved the most lives for the least amount of money.

• The budgets of local health departments shrank by as much as 24 percent, according to a 2019 report from the public health nonprofit Trust for America’s Health, and the CDC’s budget remained flat.
• Trust for America’s Health released a report, The Impact of Chronic Underfunding on America’s Public Health System: Trends, Risks and Recommendations, 2020, that examines federal, state, and local public health funding trends and recommends investments and policies to build a stronger system, prioritize prevention, and effectively address twenty-first-century health risks.
• The CARES Act, appropriated more than $4 billion in funding for the CDC and state and local health agencies to carry out critical activities such as public health data surveillance, infection control, mitigation and other response activities. 
• State Estimates of Public Health Funding (SHADAC)

Universal, Quality Coverage as a Public Health Measure:

COVID created a new emphasis on public health which, in turn, strengthened our understanding of critical role of quality coverage for all. 

• “Without Universal Healthcare, Coronavirus Puts Us All at Risk” (Los Angeles Times)
• “Coronavirus is Exposing All of the Weaknesses in the U.S. Health System” (Vox)
• “Coronavirus Already Changing Medical Care in the U.S. (Los Angeles Times)
• Medicaid expands to meet a surge in need, if states let it: 
  • Medicaid is a Smart Investment in Children (Georgetown University Health Policy Institiute)
  • “How Can Medicaid Enhance State Capacity to Respond to COVID-19?” (Kaiser Family Foundation)
  • “Medicaid Can Help as America Faces the Coronavirus Crisis – Let It” (The Hill) 
  • Increasing Federal Medicaid Matching Rates to Provide Fiscal Relief to States during the COVID-19 Pandemic (Urban Institute)
  • Five Innovative State Medicaid Approaches to Combat COVID-19, highlights several of these pioneering requests made by states to date (FamiliesUSA).
  • Medicaid Managed Care in the Time of COVID-19 and State Budget Cuts (Georgetown University Health Policy Institute)

Private health insurance vulnerable to economic downturns but COVID spurred new measures to strengthen:

• Private Health Insurance Coverage in the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (Commonwealth Fund)​​​​​​
• Coronavirus Response and the Affordable Care Act (Kaiser Family Foundation)​​​​​
• New State Insurance Requirements in Response to COVID-19 (NASHP)

Ensuring ALL are protected equally: 

Reports of disparities in treatment outcomes, deaths, job loss and more—connected to COVID - are horrific. People must make good choices, but they must have good choices to make. An adequate pandemic response requires a recognition of the structural factors governing the lives of vulnerable populations and a commensurate response. 

• Data to Promote Health Equity Amid Multiple Threats of COVID-19
• States’ Reporting of COVID-19 Health Equity Data (SHADAC)
• “The Role of the Legal System in the Flint Water Crisis” (The Milbank Quarterly)​​​​​​
• How Cities Can Provide Rapid Relief for Vulnerable People During the COVID-19 Crisis (Commonwealth Fund)
• “Serious Challenges and Potential Solutions for Immigrant Health During COVID-19” (Health Affairs)
• Five Key Questions State Health Officials Can Ask Right Now to Advance Health Equity During COVID-19 Response Efforts (State Health & Value Strategies)