Three new policy briefs from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation provide evidence-based recommendations to alleviate people's immediate needs in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, as well as provide long-term recommendations to solve the structural problems that prevent fair, stable, and affordable access to food, housing, and health coverage.
Affordable housing, food assistance, and health insurance access are the focus of three new policy briefs from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF).
The policy brief series, Federal Policy Recommendations to Advance Health Equity, provides evidence-based recommendations to alleviate people's immediate needs in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, as well as provide long-term recommendations to solve the structural problems that prevent fair, stable, and affordable access to food, housing, and health coverage.
"The pandemic has exposed a stubborn, harsh truth about life in America: People's ability to live a long and healthy life depends to a significant degree on the color of their skin, how much money they have, and where they live," RWJF said in a statement.
Social factors such as food security and housing play a pivotal role in the health of individuals and populations. A landmark 2016 study published by the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that socioeconomic factors, health behaviors, and the physical environment account for determining more than 80% of health outcomes, with clinical care accounting for only 16% of health outcomes.
Related: How to Build a Comprehensive Social Determinants of Health Initiative
Here's a rundown of the three RWJF policy briefs.
Brief No. 1: Improving Housing Affordability and Stability to Advance Health Equity
This policy brief provides recommendations both for ensuring that people don't lose their homes during the COVID-19 pandemic its aftermath and for "transformational change that guarantees housing as a human right and a public good that advances racial and economic equity."
The brief notes that 17.6 million households spend 50% or more of their income on housing, which limits their ability to pay for other necessities like food, healthcare, and transportation.
The brief's recommendations include:
- Strengthening the CDC's eviction moratorium to keep people housing during the COVID-19 crisis; issuing a moratorium on utility shutoffs; and providing funding assistance to landlords
- Reversing housing regulations like ones that penalize people's green card status based on their use of social supports
- Restructuring or reforming programs like Low Income Housing Tax Credit programs
- Helping low-income renters
- Revamping public housing
Brief No. 2: Increasing Access to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to Advance Health Equity
This policy brief focuses on broadening access to the SNAP food assistance program.
Between June and November of 2020, 7.8 million people fell into poverty, and by November, 11.7% of the U.S. population was living in poverty, RWJF notes.
Moreover, SNAP participation has risen 16.5% during the COVID-19 pandemic, from roughly 37 million in February 2020 to 43 million in September 2020.
Although the SNAP program has been proven to reduce poverty, improve the economy, lower food security, and improve children's health and educational attainment, Congress has only temporarily increased benefit levels because of the pandemic, and they're still not enough, RWJF says.
The brief's recommendations include:
- Increasing SNAP benefits immediately and for the long term
- Expanding availability of resources to support healthier food purchases
- Streamlining eligibility and enrollment processes
- Eliminating regulations that would limit access to SNAP benefits
Brief No. 3: Increasing Access to Affordable and Comprehensive Health Insurance
The third policy brief health insurance affordability, especially for people of color or those in low-wage jobs.
The brief's recommendations include:
- Increasing ACA Marketplace enrollment and reversing policy that limit coverage in the ACA Marketplace and Medicaid
- Incentivizing states to expand Medicaid
- Increasing Marketplace coverage affordability
- Closing the Medicaid coverage gap
- Reducing prescription costs
- Implementing the No Surprises Act "in a manner which maximizes the cost containment potential"
- Improving opportunities for working people with disabilities to access Medicaid
Related: What Rev Cycles Need to Know About the No Surprises Act
Alexandra Wilson Pecci is an editor for HealthLeaders.
