Ever since a pandemic-era protection for Medicaid recipients expired in March, states have removed mo𒁃re than 5.4 million people from the rolls—with some states showing more gusto for disenrolling than others.
Key Takeaways
- States have removed more than 5.4 million people from the rolls since pandemic-era Medicaid exemptions expired in March.
- Texas has removed the most of those who tried to renew, while Wyoming removed the least.
- Medicaid rolls expanded by more than 20 million during the pandemic under the expired protections.
That’s according to an analysis by the KFF, the health policy research nonprofit group formerly known as the Kaiser Family Foundation. During the pandemic, a federal order prevented states from kicking people off of state-run Medicaid programs unless they moved out of state or died. When that protection expired in March, some states began aggressively disenrolling bene🌞ficiaries, while others haꦫve moved more slowly.
The approaches fo🐷r the different states vary—ranging from Te😼xas, which removed 71.8% of those who tried to have coverage renewed, to Wyoming, where only 8% were disenrolled.
Medicaid, the federal h💞ealth insurance program for people with low incomes, is managed by the states, each of which have their own rules for eligibility. People can lose their c🌺overage if, for instance, they earn too much money.
People can also lose coverage for what the KFF calls “procedural” reasons such as not filling out paperwork in time, or if the state loses track of their contact information. Procedural disenrollments accounted for 74% of those tracked by the KFF since March.
Part of the reason why states have different disenrollment rates is that states are taking different approaches as they go through the laborious process of determining who is still eligible for coverage. Some states—such as Texas and South Carolina—are targeting people believed to be ineligible, or who didn’t respond to contacts during the pandemic. Others are working through the lists by enrollment date.
Medicaid rolls expanded by more than 20 million during the pandemic, helping drive th💟e national uninsur𝓀ed rate to an all-time low—a trend that is likely to be reversed as people lose Medicaid coverage.