Opinion: Ensuring food security and health beyond the Covid-19 public health emergency

STAT October 18, 2022
Allison Maria Lacko, Allison Bovell-Ammon and Richard Sheward

Expansions to social safety net programs during Covid-19 have been essential for low-income Americans hit hard by the pandemic. But the stabilizing impact of these expansions will be at risk when the federal Covid-19 Public Health Emergency, which was initially declared on January 31, 2020, comes to an end, possibly by Jan. 11, 2023.

Ending the public health emergency will end expansions to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the nation’s flagship programs that provide individuals or households with low incomes health insurance and combat hunger, respectively.

Households rarely experience food insecurity, poverty, or poor health in isolation. Instead, they are linked in a cycle in which high health care costs strain household budgets and lead to food...

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