June 13 MIC session to discuss relative advantages and disadvantages of expanding Medicaid vs. marketplace coverage, in the context of the Build Back Better Act

Heidi Allen will share research on insuring low-income adults via Medicaid or marketplace and the potential implications for the future of health care coverage for low-income individuals as part of ongoing series.

By: Center for Health Systems Effectiveness

May 11, 2022

Recent developments in the now-stalled Build Back Better Act, which proposed significant changes in Affordable Care Act coverage, illustrate the importance of ongoing conversation about the way low-income individuals get health insurance and how health care is financed. Continued investigation in these areas will be vital as policymakers work to determine the future of US healthcare for our most vulnerable populations.

Heidi Allen will ‘take the MIC’ on June 13 to unpack the real and perceived differences between Medicaid and the marketplace as part of the Medicaid Insights Colloquium, an ongoing bimonthly webinar series hosted by the OHSU Center for Health Systems Effectiveness.

Allen will highlight several studies focused on access, usage and costs of care for low-income enrollees in Medicaid and marketplace insurance plans, and share insights that could promote changes in healthcare policy.

Heidi Allen is the Associate Dean for Research and an Associate Professor at Columbia University School of Social Work. She is a Commissioner on the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC) and a standing member of the National Institutes of Health’s Health and Healthcare Disparities study section, a former American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow in Health and Aging Policy, and spoke at TEDMED on the cost of being uninsured in America. Her work on the impact of social policies has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Milbank Quarterly and Health Affairs, among others. Allen is a former emergency department social worker and spent several years in state health policy, examining health system redesign and public health insurance expansions.

Participants can learn more about the MIC program and RSVP for individual sessions on the series’ website. Sessions are free, but registration is required.

About the Center for Health Systems Effectiveness

The Center for Health Systems Effectiveness researches health care service delivery with the aim of improving the value and sustainability of the U.S. healthcare system.

To learn more about the CHSE, visit us on the web or email us at CHSE-info@ohsu.edu.