Underinsured Is the New Uninsured

The percentage of working-age adults with health insurance went up and the uninsured rate dropped last year, the U.S. Census Bureau reported this week. There isn’t much suspense about which way the uninsured rate is now trending, as states continue efforts to strip ineligible beneficiaries from their Medicaid rolls. But is the focus on the uninsured obscuring the struggles of the underinsured? Also, employer-sponsored insurance costs are climbing, while a mystery is unfolding in Medicare spending. And the CDC recommends the new covid booster for everyone who’s at least 6 months old.

Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet, and Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico join KFF Health News’ Emmarie Huetteman to discuss these issues and more. 

Click here for a transcript of the episode.   Plus, for “extra credit,” the panelists suggest health policy stories they read this week they think you should read, too: 

Emmarie Huetteman: KFF Health News’ “The Shrinking Number of Primary Care Physicians is Reaching a Tipping Point,” by Elisabeth Rosenthal.  Sarah Karlin-Smith: MedPage Today’s “Rural Hospital Turns to GoFundMe to Stay Afloat,” by Kristina Fiore.  Joanne Kenen: ProPublica’s “How Columbia Ignored Women, Undermined Prosecutors and Protected a Predator for More Than 20 Years,” by Bianca Fortis and Laura Beil.  Margot Sanger-Katz: Congressional Budget Office’s “Raising the Excise Tax on Cigarettes: Effects on Health and the Federal Budget.” 

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