Even as more organizations have been calling out racism in public health and medicine, some states are continuing to exacerbate health inequalities by not providing access to care for many of their most vulnerable residents, particularly those of color. 

While 40 states have expanded Medicaid, 10 states have not – and most of those are in the South. This refusal to enact Medicaid expansion amounts to a refusal to ease the health care burden of some 3.5 million uninsured adults. Racial and social justice demands that these remaining states join the rest of the country in offering help to their most vulnerable citizens.

People want health insurance, and polling shows 57% of U.S. adults believe the federal government should be tasked with providing health care for all Americans. Research also shows generally positive outcomes from expanding Medicaid, a program jointly funded by the federal government and states. Yet even after a deadly global pandemic with a highly transmissible virus, a national housing crunch with soaring home prices, and rising inflation causing the cost of food to spike, there are still policymakers who refuse to take this needed step.

Of the 10 states that have not expanded Medicaid, seven are in the South: Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. Ironically, Southern states are some of the hardest hit by interrelated issues like poverty, poor health care access and health disparities. And many states in the South are home to myriad communities with high social vulnerability, meaning they are more likely to suffer negative effects from a hazardous event like a disease outbreak....