The Biden administration has extended the COVID-19 public health emergency through Jan. 11.
The public health emergency, which was set to expire Thursday, will now remain in place past the midterm elections, keeping millions of Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program beneficiaries who were in jeopardy of losing their coverage enrolled for several more months.
MILLIONS AT RISK OF LOSING GOVERNMENT INSURANCE WHEN COVID-19 HEALTH EMERGENCY ENDS
The emergency declaration was first declared in January 2020 and has been extended in increments of 90 days since. The Biden administration has previously said it would inform states at least 60 days in advance of possible termination.
The emergency authorization has allowed vaccines, testing, and treatments to be offered for free throughout the pandemic. It also extends a practice that requires states to offer continuous enrollment for Medicaid and CHIP, public health insurance programs for low-income individuals, in order to receive additional federal funding, allowing some people who may have exceeded the income levels to qualify without a temporary or permanent lapse in coverage.
The decision comes as administration officials encourage people 5 and older to receive the omicron booster in anticipation of an uptick in cases going into the winter months and holiday season. Discussions have been ongoing about when the emergency designation should end, as the pandemic continues in its third year. President Joe Biden himself declared the coronavirus pandemic “over” in an off-the-cuff remark during a 60 Minutes interview last month, adding that the United States still had a “problem with COVID” but that the country had returned to normalcy with large events.
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House Energy and Commerce Committee ranking member Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) and Health Subcommittee ranking member Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-KY) argued earlier this summer that the administration lacks the justification to keep the emergency declaration in place and lacks a plan to end it.
