Speaker: Rebecca Myerson (University of Wisconsin’s School of Medicine and Public Health)

Time: 10:00-11:30 a.m., October 18, 2023, GMT+8

Venue: Zoom Meeting  ID: 275 603 6616

Abstract:

Health care expenditures account for more than 18% ofthe United States GDP, and health insurance plays animportant role in reducing the costs of care for patients and shielding patients from medical bankruptcy. Yet many Americans struggle with health insurance enrollment or renewal processes and remain uninsured despite eligibility for low-cost or free insurance. My work evaluates personalized, scalable outreach methods aimed at promoting equal access to health insur-ance. The underlying hypothesis is that one-on-one multilingual assistance can address multiple barriers tocoverage including administrative hassles, low healthinsurance literacy, and low English proficiency. First,Ipresent evidence on the impact of Affordable Care Actnavigator programs on health insurance coverageusing the 80% cut in program funding under the Trumpadministration as a natural experiment. This researchwas cited by the Centers for Medicare and MedicaidServices in their decision not to allow Georgia to elim-inate the navigator program. Two field experimentsone completed and one in the field, assess the impact of outbound telephone calls on enrollment in the health insurance marketplace and renewal of Medicaid coverage, a safety net health insurance program. The strategies we test in these field experiments could be readily scaled in other states or nationwide to reduce gaps in health insurance coverage.\

Source: PKU Institute For Global Health and Development