Local agencies nationwide are preparing for the social safety net, created in response to the coronavirus pandemic, to come to an end, stopping continuous Medicaid coverage for millions.
Unless President Joe Biden extends it, the public health emergency will expire on January 15 and cause as much as 15 million people to lose Medicaid coverage, including 6 million kids, according to experts.
Millions have been given continuous Medicaid coverage under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act after it was passed in March, 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic.
A provision in the act prevented states from removing Medicaid recipients from the program’s rolls. As a result, since February, 2020, at least 11 million people have enrolled for Medicaid, NBC News reported.
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If the emergency isn’t extended, those who lose coverage are likely to be eligible for another form of subsidized coverage, experts at the Urban Institute found. However, some are concerned that few people will know they are losing Medicaid and are eligible for other types of health insurance.
According to NBC News, not every state is approaching the issue the same way, and there have been few attempts to communicate this with those affected.
With states possibly looking to reduce spending and clean up their budgets in the coming year, they may start aggressively removing people from the Medicaid rolls once the emergency ends.
Right now, states are required to keep people on the Medicaid rolls, but after the public health emergency ends, states will get 12 months to decide who is eligible and who isn’t.
Medicaid recipients could be dropped from the program for minor infractions like not updating their personal information or missing a letter in the mail about their changing status.
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The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reported that enrollment in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program grew by 11 million people from February, 2020, to May, 2021.
This is more than 17% growth over 18 months, the most significant increase in the program’s history over that amount of time. To add to the record growth, federal spending on the program grew by 9.2% to $671.2 billion in 2020 because of the growth.
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