With federal Medicaid changes, Brown students aim to help people stay covered on health insurance

The Rhode Island Medicaid Program (within Rhode Island Executive Office of Health and Human Services) already has deep relationships in the community and experience in helping people understand how these changes may impact them. The agency is reinforcing the students' work with a statewide, multi-lingual awareness campaign that includes billboards, buses, social media, radio and other channels.

The initiative combines broad public messaging with deep community engagement to make sure no one will be left behind, said Rhode Island Medicaid Program Director Kristin Sousa.

"This is exactly the kind of proactive, community-based work Rhode Island needs right now," Sousa said. "We know that policy shifts at the federal level can create confusion, misunderstanding and sometimes even fear. But we also know that when information is delivered clearly, consistently and through trusted channels, people are far better equipped to make decisions that protect their health coverage."

Community members routinely tell students that their canvassing sessions are the first time that they have heard about the new and pending changes, and that their materials are welcome to be taped on barber shop windows and grocery store walls, said Aidan Choi, a master of public health student at Brown and a Medicaid fellow.

"For many of us, this is a unique opportunity as burgeoning public health professional practitioners to take our learning outside of labs and classrooms and apply it directly with the communities that we will eventually serve," Choi said. "This is the avenue through which we see our growing skills directly translate to community impact."