State & National Medicaid Briefs

Medicaid Blog:

Building Power to Address Health Inequity: Housing is Healthcare!

Nearly 50 years ago, a bold idea was presented; that the context, constructs, and conditions by which we grow determine our health outcomes—effectively ending the nature over nurture debate, that it’s what’s around us, not what’s in us that determines our health. The evolution of this concept is today known as the social determinants of health. Access to quality health care and education; stable housing, the surrounding neighborhood and the people situated there; the availability of jobs—and the broader structures and systems at play—shape our individual and collective well-being. At the Center for Popular Democracy (CPD), we acknowledge that the problem of health is not simply a problem of health systems; and that the path to health equity requires an intersectional, multi-issue approach. To that end, last year, CPD merged our Housing and Healthcare Justice campaigns to build the connection between housing and health. In partnership with our 48 affiliates, we leverage people power to build campaigns and ensure that our health and our housing is not determined for our communities, but by our communities.


The clearest way that the CPD affiliate network organizes to keep communities healthy and housed is through organizing a mass base of tenants in corporate-owned properties across the country through the Renters Rising campaign. The Renters Rising campaign has organized over 9,000 tenants nationwide to take action to improve their housing conditions, safety, health, and stability. At the end of January, CPD partnered with Action North Carolina (Action NC) to bring together a bilingual group of 50 organizers and member leaders from the Texas Organizing Project, FUERTE, Make the Road Connecticut, One Pennsylvania (One PA), Maine People's Alliance, and Churches United for Fair Housing (CUFFH) to Charlotte where a massive 30% of housing is owned by corporate landlords. Together, we knocked on 2,000 doors, talked with nearly 500 people, and received commitments from 200 tenants in corporate-owned properties to take action to improve their housing conditions and affordability. Many tenants in corporate owned properties reported rent increases of 250-$500. One story shared was of a tenant living in Charlotte for the past 20 years who always paid rent, but recently had her electricity turned off due to the neighboring tenant with whom they shared power. Though the Landlord stated they would refund her $200, they failed to deliver on this promise. When the tenant proceeded to report issue, the owner cut off the water, electricity, and took away parking space to exact revenge on tenants. The tenant sought legal help, to no avail, and was left feeling that as an immigrant, she had no support. After two days of talking to residents, we organized a rally with over 100 renters at the office of a new corporate landlord lobbying group working to undo and thwart our efforts by limiting tenant protections and organizing. Still, we will continue to build power and organize this mass movement until we realize our vision of housing as a human right. 

On December 1st, CPD, its affiliate SPACES In Action and allies including Act Up NY, Health Gap, and Public Citizen rallied outside the White House to commemorate World AIDS Day and demand investments in combating the many ongoing health crises. Among our demands was urging President Biden to extend the Public Health Emergency Declaration (PHE) on COVID. Fari Ghamina Tumpe from SPACES In Action explained that if Biden ended the declaration, state Medicaid programs would lose emergency federal funding and begin trimming their roles, leaving up to 15 million people at risk of losing insurance


The December omnibus funding stipulated that states could begin disenrolling people from Medicaid in April, and President Biden recently announced that the PHE will officially end on May 11th. On January 26th, CPD convened a cohort of affiliates working on healthcare justice and began planning for these changes. We will be holding informational sessions for our affiliates in February to explain the various threats our communities will face in this new landscape—Medicaid disenrollment, privatized coverage of COVID vaccine, testing, and treatment costs. We will also work with our Medicaid cohort of affiliates to disseminate information about how folks can navigate the coming Medicaid cuts and either maintain their Medicaid coverage, or find coverage elsewhere. Lastly, we will organize campaigns to pressure governors to fully comply with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services rules for redetermining Medicaid eligibility. We know that our people are powerful, our vision is attainable, and we look forward to continuing to ensure that everyone is housed, healthy, and has the freedom to thrive.

Featured
National Report- July 2022

All people should have access to high-quality, affordable, easily accessible, and stigma-free healthcare that covers their needs. Medicaid has already helped us get closer to that goal but needs improvement.

While Medicaid has improved access to health care and health outcomes for recipients, many are not having all their needs met. Research has shown that Medicaid recipients experience many barriers to accessing quality healthcare. Understanding the barriers that Medicaid recipients in their communities experience is a prerequisite to their elimination.

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State Brief: West Virginia

While all people who are eligible for Medicaid are legally guaranteed coverage, many Americans who are eligible struggle to enroll in and maintain Medicaid coverage. To better understand the barriers faced by people trying to access Medicaid, the Center for Popular Democracy (CPD), Alaskans Take a Stand, and researchers at Columbia University surveyed 68 community members in Alaska about their experiences applying for Medicaid. We found widespread administrative and system barriers–such as long wait times, unhelpful representatives, calls being dropped or no one answering the phone, and feeling shame or stigma.

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State Brief: Texas

While all people who are eligible for Medicaid are legally guaranteed coverage, many Americans who are eligible struggle to enroll in and maintain Medicaid coverage. To better understand the barriers faced by people trying to access Medicaid, the Center for Popular Democracy (CPD), Alaskans Take a Stand, and researchers at Columbia University surveyed 68 community members in Alaska about their experiences applying for Medicaid. We found widespread administrative and system barriers–such as long wait times, unhelpful representatives, calls being dropped or no one answering the phone, and feeling shame or stigma.

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State Brief: New Hampshire

While all people who are eligible for Medicaid are legally guaranteed coverage, many Americans who are eligible struggle to enroll in and maintain Medicaid coverage. To better understand the barriers faced by people trying to access Medicaid, the Center for Popular Democracy (CPD), Alaskans Take a Stand, and researchers at Columbia University surveyed 68 community members in Alaska about their experiences applying for Medicaid. We found widespread administrative and system barriers–such as long wait times, unhelpful representatives, calls being dropped or no one answering the phone, and feeling shame or stigma.

Read More →
State Brief: Delaware

While all people who are eligible for Medicaid are legally guaranteed coverage, many Americans who are eligible struggle to enroll in and maintain Medicaid coverage. To better understand the barriers faced by people trying to access Medicaid, the Center for Popular Democracy (CPD), Alaskans Take a Stand, and researchers at Columbia University surveyed 68 community members in Alaska about their experiences applying for Medicaid. We found widespread administrative and system barriers–such as long wait times, unhelpful representatives, calls being dropped or no one answering the phone, and feeling shame or stigma.

Read More →
State Brief: DC

While all people who are eligible for Medicaid are legally guaranteed coverage, many Americans who are eligible struggle to enroll in and maintain Medicaid coverage. To better understand the barriers faced by people trying to access Medicaid, the Center for Popular Democracy (CPD), Alaskans Take a Stand, and researchers at Columbia University surveyed 68 community members in Alaska about their experiences applying for Medicaid. We found widespread administrative and system barriers–such as long wait times, unhelpful representatives, calls being dropped or no one answering the phone, and feeling shame or stigma.

Read More →
State Brief: Arkansas

While all people who are eligible for Medicaid are legally guaranteed coverage, many Americans who are eligible struggle to enroll in and maintain Medicaid coverage. To better understand the barriers faced by people trying to access Medicaid, the Center for Popular Democracy (CPD), Alaskans Take a Stand, and researchers at Columbia University surveyed 68 community members in Alaska about their experiences applying for Medicaid. We found widespread administrative and system barriers–such as long wait times, unhelpful representatives, calls being dropped or no one answering the phone, and feeling shame or stigma.

Read More →
National Report

There is very little existing research on administrative or system infrastructure barriers to enrolling or renewing Medicaid. The new series of reports, “Sick of Waiting: Barriers to Medicaid Keep Healthcare Out of Reach” provides powerful insight to how widespread these problems are in 7 states and how they’ve been exacerbated by the pandemic. This national report, published by The Center for Popular Democracy, focuses on the issue areas of applications, renewal and income caps with insightful statistics, powerful anecdotes and suggested policy solutions.

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State Brief: Alaska

While all people who are eligible for Medicaid are legally guaranteed coverage, many Americans who are eligible struggle to enroll in and maintain Medicaid coverage. To better understand the barriers faced by people trying to access Medicaid, the Center for Popular Democracy (CPD), Alaskans Take a Stand, and researchers at Columbia University surveyed 68 community members in Alaska about their experiences applying for Medicaid. We found widespread administrative and system barriers–such as long wait times, unhelpful representatives, calls being dropped or no one answering the phone, and feeling shame or stigma.

Read More →