Elections & Campaigns, Health Care & Wellness
Reproductive Rights Measures on the Ballot This November (States to Watch)
October 23, 2024 | Mary Kate Barnauskas
February 17, 2023 | Bill Kramer
Key Takeaways:
In early 2020, as the pandemic swept across the country, Congress required that states keep people continuously enrolled in Medicaid through the end of the public health emergency. In exchange, Congress promised the states additional federal funding for the programs.
So for nearly three years now, new people have been added to the Medicaid rolls, but no one has left the program even if they became ineligible (e.g., their income surpassed the limit). As a result, enrollment in Medicaid and the related Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) has soared by 30% (adding 19.5 million new people). But now the “continuous enrollment” period is coming to an end, and states will need to figure out who all of their Medicaid enrollees are, decide whether they're still eligible, and, if not, help them find coverage elsewhere — a huge logistical nightmare.
The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that between 5 million and 14 million people will lose Medicaid coverage once the continuous enrollment provision ends. Under the omnibus spending law that Congress enacted late last year, states can begin disenrolling people from Medicaid as early as April 1, 2023, but most states will take a year to complete these disenrollments. And enhanced federal funds gradually phase out over 2023, which will support states as they work through the large number of eligibility reviews ahead of them. Read the full article here.
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October 23, 2024 | Mary Kate Barnauskas
September 27, 2024 | Megan Barton, Brock Ingmire
September 5, 2024 | Mary Kate Barnauskas