Public Health Watch: Medicaid Expansion Reporting

Public Health Watch is a Texas-based, nationally focused nonprofit investigative news organization that has been reporting on life without health insurance in the 12 states that declined to expand Medicaid after passage of the Affordable Care Act — starting with Texas. For this project, their journalists will produce a series of long-form written stories and radio segments that illustrate the value of Medicaid coverage in Texas. Stories will highlight perspectives of those living without health insurance, illustrate how lack of access to health insurance can impact hospitals and other businesses, and explain how failure to expand coverage compounds health inequities. Their work will quantify the value of Medicaid from several different vantage points and will feature profiles of nontraditional advocates for expansion, including a proexpansion Republican legislator and a conservative, rural doctor who opened his own free clinics to address the unmet needs of uninsured residents in his county. They also will coordinate a journalism collaborative with news outlets from multiple nonexpansion states — including Texas, North Carolina, Georgia, and Wyoming — to produce written and broadcast pieces that connect Medicaid expansion to human stories.