Health policy survey launches with insight on Medicaid work requirements

Most health policy experts don't think new Medicaid work requirements introduced in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) would substantially increase employment among Medicaid-enrolled, working-age adults, according to a new survey from the Cornell Health Policy Insight Panel.

The Cornell Health Policy Center(CHPC) released the findings Sept. 30 from its newly launched Insight Panel, a survey of more than 60 of the nation's top health care policy researchers intended to provide timely analysis and perspective on the most pressing issues facing the U.S. health care system.

"As policy needs evolve faster than research, we felt it was essential to capture in real time where experts find consensus and which proposals appear most feasible and effective," said Amelia Bond, associate professor of population health sciences at Weill Cornell Medicine and associate director of the CHPC.

The first Insight Panel polled national health care policy experts on Medicaid work requirements introduced in the OBBBA, which was signed into law in July and included some of the largest reforms to Medicaid since the program's inception more than half a century ago. In addition to polling panelists on the potential impact of the new requirements on the employment rates of Medicaid-enrolled working-age adults, the survey also included questions about the potential of Medicaid coverage losses resulting from the new policies.

The findings of the survey were published in Health Affairs Forefrontvia an essay authored by the Insight Panel's leadership team, along with Medicaid expert William Schpero, assistant professor of population health sciences at Weill Cornell Medicine and associate director for policy of the CHPC.

In addition to Bond, the Insight Panel leadership team includes: Dr. Dhruv Khullar, associate professor of population health sciences at Weill Cornell Medicine and associate director of the CHPC; Beth McGinty, chief of the Division of Health Policy and Economics and the Livingston Farrand Professor of Population Health Sciences at Weill Cornell Medicine, and co-director of the CHPC; and Colleen Barry, dean of the Cornell Brooks School of Public Policy and co-director of the CHPC.

"The Insight Panel is a window into the thinking of the country's foremost health policy experts - a chance to see how they're grappling with the most urgent questions facing our health care system and where they think we should go next," Khullar said.

The Insight Panel will issue new surveys every five to six weeks over the next year, with the results publicly available on the CHPC website after they are announced.

Established last year, CHPC is a partnership between Weill Cornell Medicineand theBrooks School of Public Policyand serves as the locus of health policy impact, research, and training at Cornell. The Center brings together the strong cadre of health policy researchers across Cornell to pursue the mission of using evidence to shape effective health policy at the federal, state, local and organization levels.

"Launching the Cornell Insight Panel is an important step toward our goal of engaging the public and decision-makers with evidence-based insights that can help inform better decision making on critical health policy issues," McGinty said. Barry added, "We founded the Cornell Health Policy Center as a cross-campus collaboration a year ago with the goal of better connecting Cornell health policy experts in Ithaca and New York City, and the Insight Panel is a great example of how we can work together to advance high impact initiatives to improve population health and well-being."

Giles Morris is assistant dean for communications in the Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy.