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This is Lindsay Smith Rogers. Today, Jennifer Kates, the Senior Vice President and Director of Global Health and

HIV Policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, returns to the podcast to talk about the expiration

of the COVID-19 public health emergency on May 11th, and what that means for some critical

flexibilities around access to tests, treatment, and eligibility for Medicaid. We also discuss the differences

between the public health emergency and the national emergency, which Biden ended earlier this

month, and why both are significant symbolic gestures coming at a time when the virus is still

killing so many people. Let's listen. Jennifer Kateates, thank you so much for coming back on the

podcast. The last time we spoke, which was in episode 540, we talked about some of the theoretical

things that might happen with the end of the public health emergency, and now we actually have an

end date of May 11th. So catch us up on what's happening with that.

Right. So when we spoke last time, there was a general belief that the administration would

end the public health emergency at some point in 2023 and would give 90 days notice to do so

because many, many things are attached to that declaration. This was a declaration

first made in January 2020. This declaration, others allowed the federal government to have

lots of flexibilities and ability to move money and do things differently when there's an emergency.

So the PHE was the first one declared and it set things in motion. But last time we spoke,

we didn't know when it might end. Well, what happened was a little bit of politics and some other

things. And basically, Congress put pressure on the administration to get this ended. And the

...