03/15/2022

Millions of Vulnerable Americans Likely to Lose Medicaid Protections

This is expected once the federal public health emergency ends

As many as 16 million low-income Americans, including millions of children, are destined to fall off Medicaid when the nation’s public health emergency ends, as states face a herculean mission to sort out who no longer belongs on rolls that have swollen to record levels during the pandemic.

The looming disruption is a little-noticed side effect of the coronavirus crisis, and it is stoking fears among some on Medicaid and their advocates that vulnerable people who survived the pandemic will risk suddenly living without health coverage. For the Biden administration — which will make the decision on when to lift the health emergency — there is the potential political stain of presiding over a surge of poor, newly uninsured Americans, depending on how things go once states resume checking which Medicaid beneficiaries still qualify.

“The main concern I have is people are going to be cut off for reasons that have nothing to do with their eligibility,” said Gordon Bonnyman, a staff attorney for the Tennessee Justice Center, a nonprofit working for affordable health care. “Either they drop the ball, or the state drops the ball.”

Please select this link to read the complete article from The Washington Post.