HHS supports strategies to increase choice, affordability, and enrollment in high-quality healthcare coverage. HHS promotes available and affordable healthcare coverage to improve health outcomes in our communities and empowers consumers with high quality healthcare coverage choices. The Department also leverages knowledge and partnerships to increase health coverage enrollment. Below is a selection of strategies HHS is implementing.
In the context of HHS, this Strategic Plan adopts the definition of underserved populations listed in Executive Order 13985: Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities through the Federal Government to refer to "populations sharing a particular characteristic, as well as geographic communities, who have been systematically denied a full opportunity to participate in aspects of economic, social, and civic life"; this definition includes individuals who belong to underserved communities that have been denied such treatment, such as Black, Latino, and Indigenous and Native American persons, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and other persons of color; members of religious minorities; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) persons; persons with disabilities; persons who live in rural areas; and persons otherwise adversely affected by persistent poverty or inequality. Individuals may belong to more than one underserved community and face intersecting barriers.
Contributing OpDivs and StaffDivs
ACL, AHRQ, ASPE, CMS, HRSA, and OASH work to achieve this objective.
Strategies
Promote available and affordable healthcare coverage to improve health outcomes in our communities
- Enhance and support outreach efforts to inform eligible individuals, of available affordable healthcare insurance options and related cost-saving opportunities, including premium and cost-sharing assistance programs.
- Provide support and assistance to the five U.S. Territories—American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands—to comply with federal requirements of the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid to meet the healthcare needs of their populations.
Empower consumers with choices for high quality healthcare coverage
- Improve transparency of choice and access to available health coverage options, including Medicare, Medicaid, and Marketplace plans, for all consumers seeking coverage or searching for alternatives
- Promote partnerships and collaborations with states to provide and monitor equitable and timely access to Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) providers and services.
- Facilitate enhanced understanding of eligibility, improved screening, and health insurance literacy to bolster enrollment and coverage of underserved populations.
Leverage knowledge and partnerships to increase health coverage enrollment
- Support states, tribes, territories, grantees, faith-based organizations, and other federal award recipients through technical assistance and capacity building to expand pathways to high-quality healthcare coverage for all populations.
- Build the capacity of organizations to navigate the changing healthcare landscape to better support their clients to access and use their health coverage to improve health outcomes.
- Monitor and assess to improve enrollment and retention of eligible individuals in comprehensive public and private coverage, including Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), Qualified Health Plans through an Exchange, and other high-quality comprehensive private insurance.
- Support research, including the application of findings and lessons learned, related to the cost effectiveness and affordability of insurance coverage for diverse populations.
