evidence: Expanding Medicaid helps low-income families’ health and financial well-being, especially those in which someone has lost a job. In states that expanded Medicaid under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), unemployed workers experienced large gains in coverage.1 These gains improved access to medical care, reducing forgone care.2 Better access translates into better health and lower mortality.3 Moreover, there are spillover benefits for economic well-being: lower debt and better credit scores.4 Physical health and financial health are inextricably linked. Expanding Medicaid improves both for low-income families. [...] "We don’t want to add more people to a broken system." Opponents of expanding coverage often deride Medicaid as a low-quality program. Yet a majority of people in the US—Democrats, Republicans, and independents alike—believe that the program is working well. Most Medicaid enrollees are quite happy with their coverage, reporting higher rates of satisfaction than people with private insurance. Furthermore, in states that have not expanded Medicaid, a clear majority favor doing so. And, as noted, there is clear evidence that Medicaid coverage leads to substantial improvements in health and financial well-being. The Urban Institute has estimated that if all states adopted Medicaid expansion, 4.1 million individuals would gain coverage.10 The evidence is clear that this expansion would save lives and mitigate the tremendous ongoing economic damage resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.