Protests for Medicaid Coverage for Millions
As a product of the $1.75 trillion spending bill that congress passed in Dec 2022, millions of people who enrolled in Medicaid during the COVID-19 pandemic could start to lose their coverage on April 1, 2023. Protests have broken out to save Medicaid.
A government policy on “health emergency” that prohibited states from terminating Medicaid coverage. The Covid-19 pandemic qualified as such an emergency. Many people applied for and received coverage during that period, which now appears to have ended.
Twenty-five Republican governors signed a letter asking the President to end the qualified Pandemic emergency, noting that this it is no longer an emergency. The letter also expressed growing concerns about bloated Medicaid enrollment.
Millions of people are expected to lose coverage under the program, which provides health care coverage to nearly 80 million people, most of whom are low-income people throughout the country. Under the proposal, the federal government will also phase out extra funds provided to states for the additional enrollees over the next year.
Many people will be eligible for health insurance coverage through their employers, the Affordable Care Act, or in the case of children, the Children’s Health Insurance Program. However, the cost and deductions of the ACA are considerably higher at a time when inflation is unchecked.
Robin Rudowitz, the director of Medicaid at Kaiser Family Foundation, advised people who are on Medicaid to ensure that their contact information is up to date on their accounts and to check their mail frequently to keep an eye on their eligibility status as the April 1st deadline approaches.
“There is likely to be people who fall through the cracks,” she said.
The move will free up additional funds to pay for more stable health insurance coverage for children in low-income households by requiring states to keep those children on Medicaid for at least a year after they have enrolled. However, a push to require states to extend Medicaid to new mothers for a 12-month period after giving birth failed to make the cut. Currently, the District of Columbia and 27 states extend coverage for a 12-month period for postpartum mothers.
Food Subsidies Withdrawn Affecting Millions
At the beginning of the pandemic, the federal government prohibited states from terminating people’s Medicaid coverage, even if they were no longer eligible. Before the pandemic, people would regularly lose their Medicaid coverage if they started earning too much money to qualify for the program, gained health care coverage through their employer, or moved to a new state. However, this all stopped once COVID-19 started spreading across the country.
Over the next year, states will be required to recheck the eligibility of every person who is on Medicaid. People will have to fill out forms to verify their personal information, including their address, income, and household size.
