![]() ![]() Department of Health and Human Services forecast that children would be disproportionately impacted, with more than half of those disenrolled still actually eligible. She added, “We’re likely to see people showing up at a doctor’s office in the coming months not knowing they’ve lost Medicaid.”Īdvocates fear that many households losing coverage may include children who are actually still eligible, because Medicaid covers children at higher income levels than their parents or guardians. “I think there’s still a lot of confusion among families on what’s happening,” said Hillarie Hagen, a health policy associate at the nonprofit Idaho Voices for Children. When the enrollment freeze ended in April, Idaho started processing those cases - dropping nearly 67,000 of the 92,000 people whose cases have been decided so far. Unlike some states, Idaho continued to evaluate people’s Medicaid eligibility during the pandemic even though it didn’t remove anyone. Their coverage could be restored retroactively, if people submit information showing their eligibility up to 90 days after their deadline. Yet the department said 152,600 people have been non-responsive. But tracking down responses from everyone has proved difficult, because some people have moved, changed contact information or disregarded mailings about the renewal process.īefore dropping people from Medicaid, the Florida Department of Children and Families said it makes between five and 13 contact attempts, including texts, emails and phone calls. States have a year to complete the process. Now that eligibility reviews have resumed, states have begun plowing through a backlog of cases to determine whether people’s income or life circumstances have changed. The rolls swelled because federal law prohibited states from removing people from Medicaid during the health emergency in exchange for providing states with increased funding. More than 93 million people nationwide were enrolled in Medicaid as of the most recent available data in February - up nearly one-third from the pre-pandemic total in January 2020. ![]() ![]() “But the pandemic is over - and we are leading the way back to normalcy.” “Those who do not qualify for Medicaid are taking resources from those who need them,” Sanders said on Twitter last month. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has dismissed criticism of the state’s process. But a 2021 state law requires the post-pandemic eligibility redeterminations to be completed in six months, and the state will continue “to swiftly disenroll individuals who are no longer eligible,” the Department of Human Services said in statement.Īrkansas Gov. “It was like fixing one thing and then another problem came up, and they fixed it and then something else came up,” Mojica said.Īrkansas officials said they have tried to renew coverage automatically for as many people as possible and placed a special emphasis on reaching families with children. ![]()
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