Insurance, Medicare & Medicaid

With the ACA premium tax credits expiring, some policymakers are proposing broadening access to health savings accounts (HSAs) as a fix-all to consumers’ health care affordability concerns, despite evidence to the contrary.

Postpartum uninsurance decreased among Black women in non-expansion states
after continuous coverage, but racial inequities persisted.

AcademyHealth member and research champion Miranda Yaver highlights the impact of insurance claim denials on Americans and the value of making sure your research is communicated to everyday people.

The T-MSIS Analytic Files (TAF) Analysis Reporting Checklist is an essential tool designed to enhance the clarity and reproducibility of research using Medicaid claims data. Developed by the Medicaid Data Learning Network (MDLN), this checklist ensures studies are both transparent and methodologically sound to safeguard the research used to inform policy.

In a recent conversation on the Analyzing Healthcare podcast AcademyHealth President and CEO Aaron Carroll offered a candid look at the challenges and opportunities facing the U.S. health system today. Carroll emphasized that today’s health care debate requires more than simple narratives. It requires evidence and leadership committed to long‑term solutions.

H.R. 1’s drastic changes to Medicaid eligibility—particularly for some legal migrants and people swept up in work requirements—will trigger unprecedented levels of benefit denials, reductions, and terminations. Each action carries the legal obligation of due process: meaningful notice and a fair hearing.

As the U.S. faces a worsening maternal health crisis, new federal Medicaid reforms could widen racial, economic, and geographic disparities in pregnancy and postpartum care, warns a Health Affairs Forefront article by AcademyHealth researchers. Citing findings from the Doula Research for Equitable Advances in Medicaid Pregnancy Health (DREAM) project, the authors caution that proposed changes may erode recent gains in maternal health equity and urge policymakers to protect access to essential care.

In an article in JAMA Health Forum, Medicaid Data Learning Network (MDLN) authors discuss the impetus for creating the T-MSIS Analytic Files (TAF) Analysis Reporting Checklist and the methodology used to do so.

The TAF Analysis Reporting Checklist is designed to guide reporting of research using the TAF Medicaid claims data. It serves to promote transparency and reproducibility in TAF-based studies.

This policy brief by Emma Mairson from the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health and AcademyHealth’s Project DREAM describes six state efforts to create a doula benefit in Medicaid.