Eligibility checks for Medicaid were paused during the pandemic. Many people are still losing coverage in the bureaucratic jumble that has ensued since they resumed.

Eligibility checks for Medicaid were paused during the pandemic. Many people are still losing coverage in the bureaucratic jumble that has ensued since they resumed.

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Ordinarily, people enrolled in Medicaid — government-provided health insurance for people with low incomes or disabilities — go through eligibility checks every year to determine whether they can renew coverage. But in March 2020, the federal government froze the checks as part of its public health emergency. So people were continuously enrolled in Medicaid, and no one was dropped for three years.

That stopped when President Joe Biden ended the emergency in the spring. Many months later, Medicaid enrollees across the country are still getting letters like Olenski’s as part of the “unwinding” process, which is scheduled to continue through May. After that, the pre-pandemic status quo resumes.

As of Dec. 20, at least 13 million people had been disenrolled from Medicaid in 2023, according to an analysis by KFF, a nonprofit group focused on health policy. Net enrollment in the program (given that some people were newly enrolled or have re-enrolled) has dropped by around 7.8 million, according to an analysis by the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families.

  • @[email protected]
    11•5 months ago

    To prevent gaps in insurance coverage, some states, such as California and Rhode Island, will automatically enroll people who lose Medicaid in such marketplace plans. But elsewhere, Morrison and workers at similar nonprofit health groups nationwide are helping people navigate the difficult administrative process of finding the right plan. Known as “navigators” or “assisters” and publicly funded, they work with patients free of charge.

    Also, remind me where Texas stood on Medicaid expansion.

    • @blurg
      7•5 months ago

      In addition to the Texas stand on Medicaid expansion, from the article:

      Texas is “ground zero” for the Medicaid unwinding, Alker said. The state leads the U.S. in disenrollments, with around 1.7 million this year, according to KFF.

      • @AA5B
        3•5 months ago

        Don’t forget the very next line, Texas is responsible for …

        As of late November, nearly 990,000 renewal applications in the state had been denied for procedural reasons.

        And there’s this line

        We did require Texas to reinstate over 90,000 people that were incorrectly disenrolled from the program,