Stop the Churn: Preventing Gaps in Health Insurance Coverage
<p>For more than a decade, The Commonwealth Fund and other organizations have been studying the prevalence and impact of repeatedly gaining and losing health insurance coverage—a phenomenon known as churning. A <a href="/blog/2013/stop-churn-preventing-gaps-health-insurance-coverage">new blog post</a> by The Commonwealth Fund's Susan Hayes and Cathy Schoen looks at how minor fluctuations in family income, pregnancy and other life changes, or failure to file paperwork required to prove eligibility for public insurance can mean the difference between having coverage or not. </p><p>"Losing coverage puts low-income people especially at risk for falling into medical debt or for delaying or skipping needed care altogether because of the cost," the authors say. "In addition to poor health outcomes, this can ultimately result in greater expenditures for public health insurance programs, because patients may be sicker by the time they re-enroll." </p>
<p>Visit <a href="~/link.aspx?_id=0B67ACA7A5CB453CB876F3DB59E19448&_z=z"><em>The Commonwealth Fund Blog</em></a> to learn more about churning—as well as potential solutions, such as recent bipartisan federal legislation calling for 12-month continuous enrollment in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. </p>