Medicaid Expansion

Alabama Arise is proud to be a member of the Cover Alabama Coalition, a group of advocates, businesses, faith leaders and health care professionals making the case for Medicaid expansion. Click here to learn more about Cover Alabama.

Hundreds of thousands of Alabama adults have no health coverage. Tens of thousands of them suffer daily because they can't afford treatment for chronic health conditions like cancer, diabetes or heart disease. Hundreds die every year as a result. Meanwhile, eight rural hospitals have closed in Alabama since 2011, and many others are at risk of the same fate.

Medicaid expansion would reduce human suffering and strengthen Alabama's health care system. It would save lives and deliver financial peace of mind to families who desperately need it. And it would create jobs and generate tax revenues by pumping billions of federal dollars into the state's economy. Arise's research reveals why Medicaid expansion is the right choice for Alabama from economic, health and moral standpoints.

Featured Resources

Fact Sheet

Vote ‘No’ on SB 84: Junk health plans are not the solution for Alabama’s health coverage gap

Junk health plans lack basic consumer protections. SB 84 would allow a “nonprofit agricultural organization” to offer unregulated health plans to its members in Alabama. The bill explicitly says these benefits would “not [be] provided through an insurance policy.” Unlike health insurance sold by other carriers, plans like the ones offered under SB 84 could [...]
Issue
Medicaid Expansion
Date
February 21, 2025
Author
Alabama Arise
Personal Stories

‘It shouldn’t be like this’

“If working people could get the coverage they deserve, we wouldn’t even be where we are now. Here in the Black Belt, or anywhere else.”

Issues
Health, Medicaid Expansion
Date
January 15, 2025
Author
Whit Sides
Personal Stories

‘I just want to go to the doctor’

“I get these bills in the mail, and it’s so much stress. I don’t like owing people money. So I just don’t get help even when I’m in pain.”

Issues
Health, Medicaid Expansion
Date
January 15, 2025
Author
Whit Sides
Personal Stories

‘Coverage needs to be affordable for everyone’

Valerie is disabled, living without health coverage in rural Wilcox County. After 30 surgeries, she’s got thousands of dollars in medical debt.

Issues
Health, Medicaid Expansion
Date
January 15, 2025
Author
Whit Sides
Resources

Las prioridades legislativas de Alabama Arise para 2025

Más de 150 grupos miembros de Alabama Arise y más de 1,500 miembros individuales eligen todos los años nuestras prioridades legislativas. Este proceso garantiza que los habitantes de Alabama más afectados por la pobreza participen de las decisiones. A continuación se enumeran las prioridades que nuestros miembros eligieron para 2025. Para obtener una versión de este [...]
Issues
Health, Public Transportation, Safety Net, Tax Reform, Voting Rights, Medicaid Expansion, Budgets, Criminal Justice
Date
December 23, 2024
Author
Alabama Arise
Member Resources

Alabama Arise 2025 legislative priorities

More than 150 Alabama Arise member groups and more than 1,500 individual members choose our legislative priorities each year. This process ensures that Alabamians most impacted by poverty have a seat at the table. Below are the priorities that our members selected for 2025. For a PDF version of this document, click here or click [...]
Issues
Criminal Justice, Health, Public Transportation, Safety Net, Tax Reform, Voting Rights, Medicaid Expansion, Budgets
Date
October 23, 2024
Author
Alabama Arise
Personal Stories

From a childhood in the cancer ward to a lifetime in Alabama’s coverage gap

Lary Brooks is a fighter.  At just 2 1/2 years old, he was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia, a bone and blood cancer that nearly took his life. Lary survived thanks to the life-saving treatment he received at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn. “I was a week from dying when they found [...]
Issues
Health, Medicaid Expansion
Date
October 16, 2024
Author
Whit Sides
Fact Sheet

Expand Medicaid to save moms and babies in Alabama

Where you live shouldn’t impact whether you get health care. But many women face preventable barriers to obtaining maternal health care in Alabama. Closing Alabama’s health coverage gap through Medicaid expansion is an essential part of the solution. Alabama has experienced a steady rate of labor and delivery department closures in recent years, creating several maternity [...]
Issues
Health, Medicaid Expansion
Date
August 20, 2024
Author
Debbie Smith
Fact Sheet

Close the health coverage gap for Alabama’s veterans

Many Alabama veterans face preventable barriers to obtaining health care. Closing our state’s health coverage gap through Medicaid expansion is an essential part of the solution. Approximately 10,000 Alabama veterans are uninsured. In 2022, half of Alabama veterans who were uninsured had an income below 138% of the federal poverty level (FPL), which is the [...]
Issues
Health, Medicaid Expansion
Date
May 14, 2024
Author
Suhas Kellampalli
Fact Sheet

It’s time to expand Medicaid and close Alabama’s coverage gap

Nearly 300,000 Alabamians with low incomes would benefit from Medicaid expansion. People in the coverage gap earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough for an affordable private health insurance plan on the Marketplace. This leaves them in the health coverage gap. The vast majority of people who would gain coverage through Medicaid [...]
Issues
Health, Medicaid Expansion
Date
April 2, 2024
Author
Alabama Arise

Issue Expert

Debbie Smith

Cover Alabama Campaign Director
Email

The Latest on this Issue

Vote ‘No’ on SB 84: Junk health plans are not the solution for Alabama’s health coverage gap
Arise 2025: How we’re working to build a better Alabama
‘It shouldn’t be like this’
‘I just want to go to the doctor’
‘Coverage needs to be affordable for everyone’