The Build Back Better budget reconciliation bill, approved by the U.S. House of Representatives today, includes numerous provisions to dramatically strengthen and expand public and private health insurance coverage.

The Build Back Better Act takes critical steps to improve the affordability and accessibility of health insurance, tackle our nation’s maternal health crisis, and close the coverage gap for people left behind when their states refused to expand Medicaid. Experts from Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families and Center on Health Insurance Reforms teamed up to summarize the Medicaid, CHIP, and private coverage provisions of the budget reconciliation bill, including policies to:

• Provide 12 months of postpartum Medicaid coverage and 12 months of continuous coverage for children;
• Make federal funding for CHIP permanent;
• Significantly increase federal Medicaid funding for Puerto Rico and other territories;
• Extend the enhancements to marketplace premium subsidies provided in the American Rescue Plan Act;
• Close the Medicaid “coverage gap” by allowing people under 100 percent of the poverty line to enroll in $0 premium marketplace plans; and
• Create a $30 billion fund for states to support reinsurance or subsidies to reduce deductibles and other plan cost-sharing.

Please download the issue brief here.

The Senate is expected to consider the BBB budget reconciliation bill within the next few weeks.