Over 1 Million People Removed from Medicaid as Post-Pandemic Clearance of Enrollees Begins

In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, over 1 million individuals have been removed from the Medicaid program. Several states have been swift in terminating healthcare coverage, primarily due to paperwork deficiencies.

The federal government requires this eligibility assessment, but President Joe Biden’s administration has expressed dissatisfaction with the speed at which some states are carrying out this task.

“Kids and families are losing coverage for some period of time,” Daniel Tsai, a high-ranking Medicaid official, recently shared with journalists.

According to reports available to the public and data gathered by The Big Big News, around 1.5 million people have been unenrolled from Medicaid in over two dozen states that initiated the process in April or May.

Florida has seen the most substantial drop, with several hundred thousand people being removed. High rates of dropouts were also seen in states such as Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, and West Virginia, where about half or more were removed in May.

By Arkansas’ own admission, it has removed over 140,000 people from Medicaid. This process has caused difficulties for individuals like 28-year-old Jennifer Mojica, who faced multiple hurdles and frustrations due to inconsistencies in income calculation and misinformation regarding coverage cancellation.

Arkansas officials have aimed to automate coverage renewals as much as possible, especially for families with children, due to a 2021 state law that mandates post-pandemic eligibility reassessments within six months.

The swift disenrollment of ineligible individuals will continue, according to the Department of Human Services. Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders defended the state’s approach, emphasizing that the pandemic is over and normalcy must be restored.

Before the pandemic, there were about 93 million Medicaid beneficiaries, a number that rose by approximately a third by February 2023, largely due to a federal law prohibiting states from removing Medicaid beneficiaries during the health crisis while providing states with increased funding.

Now that eligibility reassessments are back, states have begun to clear the backlog of cases, determining if income or living situations have changed. The process of tracking everyone has proven challenging due to factors like relocation, changing contact information, or ignoring mailings about the renewal process.

Before removing people from Medicaid, the Florida Department of Children and Families reported making between five to thirteen contact attempts, including texts, emails, and phone calls. Despite these efforts, 152,600 people have remained non-responsive.

In Idaho, unlike some states, the eligibility evaluations continued during the pandemic even though nobody was removed. Once the enrollment freeze lifted in April, Idaho processed these cases, leading to the removal of nearly 67,000 of the 92,000 people whose cases have been decided so far.

A report last year by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services suggested that children may be disproportionately affected, as they can still be eligible for Medicaid at higher income levels than their parents or guardians.

The process has caused distress to many Medicaid recipients. In Florida, Julie Talamo spent weeks contacting state officials to ensure that her 19-year-old special-needs son, Thomas, would remain on Medicaid.

Incomplete eligibility reassessments have also been a problem, with states like Pennsylvania, Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, New Mexico, and Ohio reporting over 100,000 incomplete cases in both April and May.

Indiana resident Samantha Richards, a lifelong Medicaid recipient, expressed her unease about the unpredictable nature of Medicaid, fearing sudden termination due to paperwork or deadline issues.

This story was reported by Lieb from Jefferson City, Missouri, and DeMillo from Little Rock, Arkansas, with contributions from AP reporters Anthony Izaguirre, Marc Levy, and Arleigh Rodgers. Rodgers is a member of the Big Big News/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative, a program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on underrepresented issues.

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• Medicaid
• Post-pandemic policies
• Healthcare coverage in the United States
• Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services