ROCHESTER, NY, November 29, 2005 - Hurricanes Katrina and Rita left the Gulf Coast with a daunting list of public health problems, from cleaning up toxic spills to rebuilding medical facilities. "But one health policy problem can be dealt with immediately-ensuring financial access to health care for the people who lost their health insurance because their jobs are gone or whose Medicaid eligibility is in doubt because they were evacuated to other states," asserts INQUIRY Editor Katherine Swartz.

In her most recent column, "A View from Here," Swartz advocates passage of legislation proposed by Sens. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Max Baucus (D-Mont.) to extend Medicaid benefits for five months to people who have lost their jobs and health coverage and do not meet the states' typical eligibility rules for Medicaid. The bill also would ensure that evacuees receiving Medicaid benefits before the hurricanes would continue to receive them. "This bill - or a version close to it - should be passed because it is the right thing to do," says Swartz, a professor of health policy and management at the Harvard School of Public Health. "The people whose lives have been so devastated by losing their homes and possessions should not now be placed in further jeopardy because they do not have health insurance or Medicaid coverage."

Additionally, from a research perspective, extending Medicaid to so many people at one time would afford an unprecedented opportunity to study patterns of health care use in the period immediately following enrollment in health insurance, notes Swartz. The data generated also would help health policy investigators derive better estimates of the costs of covering the uninsured.

Full text of the column, which appears in the fall issue of INQUIRY, is available at www.inquiryjournal.org under "Current Issue."

INQUIRY is a peer-reviewed scholarly publication. Now in its 42nd year, it is published quarterly by Excellus Health Plan, Inc. Press releases and article abstracts are available at www.inquiryjournal.org.