Today, we are at the high-water mark of health coverage in America. More Americans than ever before benefit from the peace of mind that health insurance affords, with over 90 percent of Americans covered through private insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, or the exchanges.
With recently passed legislation and Administration actions that target Medicaid and implement new rules for marketplace enrollees, these coverage levels are set to decline.
This sets us up for a new challenge: what is our path forward for making health coverage accessible for those who need it, and how do we keep coverage affordable for those who have it?
Larry Levitt, KFF’s Executive Vice President for health policy, joins this episode of Hospitals in Focus to discuss this challenge, and the solutions available to policymakers. Larry is a veteran policy expert steeped in knowledge of Medicare, Medicaid, and the health care marketplace who understands just how central health coverage is to Americans’ health.
Guest Bio:
Larry Levitt is the executive vice president for health policy, overseeing KFF’s policy work on Medicare, Medicaid, the health care marketplace, the Affordable Care Act, racial equity, women’s health, and global health. He previously was editor-in-chief of kaisernetwork.org, which was KFF’s online health policy news and information service and directed KFF’s communications.
Prior to joining KFF, Levitt served as a senior health policy adviser to the White House and the Department of Health and Human Services, working on the development of the Clinton Administration’s Health Security Act and other health policy initiatives. Earlier, he was the special assistant for health policy with California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi, a medical economist with Kaiser Permanente, and served in a number of positions in Massachusetts state government.
Levitt holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of California, Berkeley, and a master’s degree in public policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.