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Millions to lose Medicaid access as Covid-19 enrollment ends [prismreports.org]

 

By Lily Levine, Photo: iStock, Prism, March 23, 2023

On April 1, state agencies will begin reviewing current enrollees’ eligibility to remain covered by Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), initiating a nationwide unwinding process. According to estimates from the Department of Health and Human Services, 15 million people may lose coverage once the continuous enrollment provision ends.

The Families First Coronavirus Response Act originally authorized the continuous coverage plan, a COVID-19 relief measure passed in March 2020 to keep people insured. By November 2022, over 90 million people were enrolled in Medicaid—including nearly 7 million children via CHIP. This is a 28.5% increase from the 71.2 million that were enrolled In February 2020, right before the pandemic hit the U.S.

It could take some agencies up to 12 months to initiate renewals and an additional two months to complete them. The decision is a result of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, which was passed in Congress’s year-end omnibus spending bill in December and delinks the Medicaid continuous coverage requirement from the COVID-19 public health emergency.

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