The latest spending bill President Biden signed into law at the end of 2022 included a section allowing states to begin the process of getting people off Medicaid this April. This means that people with Medicaid, or the medical staff who help them, must update their paperwork each year or risk not getting the medicines and treatment they need.
Kimberly Painter / WHYY
George Mink Jr. is a medical outreach worker in Delaware County, Pennsylvania.
Riddick says it means going back to “a constant battle and … a constant struggle to make sure patients stay connected to their health insurance.”
The US Department of Health and Human Services estimates that more than 6 million people who are eligible for Medicaid can lose their coverage because of paperwork barriers.
If the state determines that someone is no longer eligible for Medicaid, they won’t be immediately terminated, said Jennifer Tolbert, associate director of Medicaid’s program and uninsured at the Kaiser Family Foundation. The state will take months to a year to complete the process. The Pennsylvania Department of Social Services said it would take a full year to do this, and is working across its offices to prepare for the end of ongoing enrollment, ensuring no one experiences health insurance lapses.
The federal government also increased Medicaid funding to states when they asked to keep people registered during the pandemic.
Tolbert added that the move to keep people enrolled in Medicaid on an ongoing basis is truly unprecedented, but there will be some lasting changes from the pandemic.
For example, in Oregon, a child eligible for Medicaid can be enrolled at birth and remain enrolled through age 6 without reapplication. Washington, California, and New Mexico are also considering similar policies.
Philadelphia Health Commissioner Cheryl Bettygall worked for years at the city’s health center. She said continued enrollment in Medicaid and free access to testing and treatment for COVID-19 is a big step forward, and she hopes some of it will continue.
“There was a moment in the pandemic where we realized that it was really important that everyone had access to care. And we somehow changed our minds about it,” she said. If there is a newer, better vaccine to do that, I want everyone to be vaccinated and have a treatment that prevents hospitalization.”
“Frankly, these are all things that we want to make accessible to everyone in the same way we want to make treatment for heart disease and diabetes and asthma accessible to everyone. I recognized it as a single state.
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