WASHINGTON – U.S. Reps. Shomari Figures, D-Mobile, and Terri Sewell, D-Birmingham, are co-sponsors of legislation aimed at giving health care coverage to Americans who are uninsured due to states, such as Alabama, not expanding Medicaid coverage.
The Cover Outstanding Vulnerable Expansion-Eligible Residents Now Act, or COVER Now Act, gives local governments in states without Medicaid expansion an option to provide health care coverage to those who would qualify under an expansion. Alabama is one of 10 states that hasn’t expanded its Medicaid program under the Affordable Care Act. More than 300,000 Alabamians would be eligible if it was expanded.
Figures said the bill will help hospitals, particularly rural ones, with financial struggles. He said it will also help individuals’ get access to health care.
“More importantly, it gets people the ability to be able to go to a doctor, and it’s something that I’m proud to champion,” Figures told Alabama Daily News.
The COVER Now Act would establish Medicaid pilot projects. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services would work with counties and cities to provide coverage to those eligible. The bill would not require state approval. It would ensure full cost coverage for the first three years and gradually decline to 90 percent by the seventh year. The bill would also automatically enroll eligible people in the state plan if it decides to expand Medicaid coverage.
Figures said the bill would also be good for Alabama’s economy, helping to keep hospitals open because he said without them it’s harder for people to live and work in areas without health care.
“It’s a huge economic barrier to overcome, because companies don’t want to relocate, companies don’t want to expand, families don’t want to move into communities that do not have a hospital,” Figures told ADN. “It is a very basic core, fundamental element of what should be present in a vibrant community.”
Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-TX, is sponsoring the bill. It has 34 co-sponsors currently, all of them Democrats. Figures acknowledged it will be hard to get bipartisan support for the bill, but said it’s important to keep pushing for health care access. The 10 states that do not have Medicaid expansion all voted for Trump in 2024.
Several organizations have endorsed the legislation including the Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund, American Diabetes Association and the National Alliance on Mental Illness.