What Are State Officials Doing to Make Private Health Insurance Work Better for Consumers During the Coronavirus Public Health Crisis?

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By Sabrina Corlette, Kevin Lucia, and Madeline O’Brien

Slowing the spread of the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, and ensuring affected patients receive treatment requires an urgent, coordinated, and comprehensive response from the federal government and states. Efforts must include improving testing capacity, supporting providers, addressing the lack of paid sick leave, and expanding access to Medicaid for the uninsured. At the same time, policymakers also must consider that many privately insured Americans fear they will face substantial bills if they seek testing or treatment for coronavirus.

In their latest post for the Commonwealth Fund’s To the Point blog, CHIR experts document the efforts of numerous states to help reduce financial barriers for privately insured people to get needed medical care. You can find the full article here, along with an up-to-date table summarizing states’ actions.

 

The opinions expressed here are solely those of the individual blog post authors and do not represent the views of Georgetown University, the Center on Health Insurance Reforms, any organization that the author is affiliated with, or the opinions of any other author who publishes on this blog.