Healthcare Dive reports that the majority of people with Medicaid do not know that their coverage could end when the public health emergency ends. States have already begun rechecking people with Medicaid for eligibility, Millions of them are at high risk of losing their Medicaid coverage as soon as April 1.
Reassessments for Medicaid eligibility could take 60 to 90 days, according to The Commonwealth Fund. And, the federal government is phasing out gradually the additional money it had been giving states for their Medicaid enrollees so they do not feel the need to rush the reassessment process.
A Robert Wood Johnson Foundation survey found that nearly two-thirds of adults living in a family with Medicaid did not know that they could lose their Medicaid coverage. Regardless of the state they lived in, people were unaware of this potential upcoming change in their Medicaid eligibility status.
During the pandemic, states were not allowed to conduct eligibility redeterminations for people with Medicaid. The federal government did not allow them to given the number of people who had lost their jobs and the overall environment.
During the first two and a half years of the pandemic, the number of people with Medicaid grew by 20 million to 90.9 million from 70.7 million. Now, up to 18 million people could lose Medicaid coverage.
About 40 percent of people who will lose their Medicaid coverage, should be able to get other coverage. Around seven million of them should be able to get coverage through their employers or state health insurance exchange plans. The rest are most likely going to end up without any health insurance.
Outreach and education are needed to help people with Medicaid during the redetermination process so that they remain covered if they are eligible. The Commonwealth Fund reports that 45 percent of those who are Medicaid eligible will lose their coverage. They will be disenrolled for “administrative reasons.” If they are not eligible, they need to understand how to sign up for a state health insurance exchange plan.
People with Medicaid living in the 11 states that have not expanded Medicaid eligibility are at particular risk. They are likely to have income over the Medicaid eligibility limit but under the threshold needed to get subsidies for coverage through the state health insurance exchange. Federal subsidies are available for people earning at or above 100 percent of the federal poverty level, $14,580 for a single person. Adults without children are also not eligible for Medicaid in these 11 states even if they qualify based on their income.
It will be interesting to see how the health insurers covering people with Medicaid respond to this crisis. Hospitals likely will get hit hard as patients won’t be able to pay their bills.
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