Two prominent Democratic senators have asked the Government Accountability Office to study why Covid-19 vaccination rates for Medicaid participants are still far below the general population. They also want the GAO to identify barriers that hinder national efforts to increase immunization for program beneficiaries, low-income people disproportionately affected by the virus.
Robert Casey Jr. of Pennsylvania and Ron Wyden of Oregon askQuoting KHN’s recent stories and roll call According to a letter to the GAO provided to KHN, this highlights the problem and ongoing efforts by states to increase vaccination rates.A sort of KHN Articles The report, published in February, reported data from several states, including Utah, Washington, Virginia and California, that showed vaccination rates among the Medicaid population were well below the state’s overall rate. In California, for example, 54% of Medicaid enrollees age 5 and older are at least partially vaccinated, compared with 81% of state residents in that age group.
Part of the problem is that the plan doesn’t have many members’ current addresses or phone numbers, making it difficult to reach them, state and Medicaid officials told KHN.in a KHN Story In a report released in August, state officials said they were also hindered by a lack of access to data on which members were vaccinated.
These issues reflect the decentralized nature of Medicaid, which receives most of its funding from the federal government but is administered by the states.
“The barriers to vaccinating Medicaid enrollees are particularly troubling given the program’s importance to people of color and low-wage workers,” the senators wrote in a letter to the GAO.
“We are concerned that these data barriers may hinder efforts to increase COVID-19 vaccination rates and address persistent health inequities exacerbated by the pandemic, especially in communities of color and those with limited incomes disproportionately affected by the disease in the crowd.”
Casey chairs the Senate Select Committee on Aging, and Wyden chairs the Senate Finance Committee, which oversees Medicare and Medicaid spending.
“We want to ensure that every effort is made to make vaccines more accessible to these beneficiaries,” the senators wrote. “A lack of good data undermines our ability to potentially prolong the pandemic and put at-risk populations at greater risk. .”
The letter also cited a A report by Duke University researchers That said, there is a 15% to 20% difference in vaccination rates between Medicaid beneficiaries and those with other forms of health insurance.
The senators said the lag in vaccinations is particularly important because the 5 million insured people are frontline workers in the health industry and other critical services, Citation report From the Center for Budget and Policy Focus.
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Kaiser Health News is a nonprofit national health policy news service affiliated with the nonpartisan Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.
