Millions of Children in Danger of Losing Medicaid Coverage

(DailyDig.com) – According to research by the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, three million fewer children are enrolled in Medicaid now than there were on April 1, 2023, when the safeguards from the epidemic ended and the unwinding of coverage began.

The term “unwinding” describes the expiration of a federal mandate on states to maintain Medicaid eligibility.

Officials projected that over 15 million individuals would lose their coverage when the Biden administration gave states permission to start the unwinding process. The United States is over halfway to that milestone since the process began. According to the data, there has been a total reduction of around 7.8 million adults and children as a result of the unwinding process.

The governors of the nine states with the largest percentage or number of Medicaid coverage reductions among children through the month of September received letters from Xavier Becerra, the Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary, on December 18. Texas, South Dakota, Ohio, New Hampshire, Montana, Idaho, Georgia, Florida, and Arkansas were the nine states that got these letters.

Approximately 60 percent of the decrease in Medicaid and CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program) enrollment may be attributed to the nine states, according to federal health experts. There are just two states with Democrat governors: Kansas and Wisconsin.

Becerra expressed worry at the statistics and asked the states to use the four hundred state options the agency had allowed to facilitate re-enrollment, including Medicaid expansion, as well as the dozens of federal methods and policies that HHS had proposed.

According to HHS, the ten states that haven’t expanded disenrolled more children than the forty-one states that have expanded together with D.C. combined.

In a letter, Becerra encouraged the nine states to make sure that, throughout the Medicaid enrollment process, eligible children don’t lose their health insurance in their state because of bureaucratic obstacles or red tape.

The whole effect won’t be known until additional information is available, although some individuals who lose coverage ultimately switch to private health plans or join the Affordable Care Act market.