Lost Medicaid Health Coverage? Here’s What You Need to Know

This article by Samantha Liss first appeared in KFF Health News, republished with permission.

Samantha Liss August 10, 2023

The nation’s health insurance system is undergoing tremendous upheaval as an estimated 8.2 million people will need to find new coverage since pandemic protections for Medicaid enrollees came to an end this spring.

That’s leaving many patients confused about how to get new medical insurance.

“It’s an overwhelming task,” said Taffy Morrison, who is working to connect Louisiana residents to new coverage through the nonprofit Southwest Louisiana Area Health Education Center. But Morrison reminds people: “Don’t panic. There is help.”

For many of those kicked off Medicaid, a state-federal health insurance program that covers people with low incomes and disabilities, new insurance will come from their employers. Others may need to turn to the Affordable Care Act online marketplaces to replace their coverage.

Elevance insurance officials told investors in mid-July they were seeing signs of movement from Medicaid to exchange plans as states ramp up reviews of who still qualifies for the public insurance program. The company, formerly called Anthem, reported 18.2% growth in its exchange plans from the year before, with its marketplace plans now covering at least 949,000 people.

To prevent gaps in insurance coverage, some states, such as California and Rhode Island, will automatically enroll people who lose Medicaid in such marketplace plans. But elsewhere, Morrison and workers at similar nonprofit health groups nationwide are helping people navigate the difficult administrative process of finding the right plan. Known as “navigators” or “assisters” and publicly funded, they work with patients free of charge.

Consumers should be wary of anyone charging to assist them in finding coverage — or pushing a particular plan. Misleading marketing has led some people to plans that aren’t actually insurance, such as health care sharing ministries, which don’t necessarily cover members’ medical bills.

The dramatic reshuffling of insurance coverage comes with the end of federal covid-19 pandemic protections. States were barred from kicking enrollees off Medicaid during the pandemic to ensure people had access to health care. As a result, the program swelled by 30% from February 2020 to December 2022 to cover about 92 million people, including children who receive coverage under CHIP, the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Now, for the first time since 2020, states have resumed checking whether enrollees remain eligible.

The first batch of numbers are rolling in. So far, more than 4 million people have lost coverage in 42 states and the District of Columbia. And in June alone, more than 50,000 of them lived in Louisiana, according to state data. Of the more than 151,000 beneficiaries’ files the state reviewed in a single month, nearly 13,000 people no longer qualified for Medicaid but roughly 38,000 additional people lost coverage because they did not submit a renewal packet for the state to determine whether they still qualified.

Morrison’s group of 50 navigators across the state will now try to make a dent in those numbers as coverage losses are expected to grow.

Patient advocates in Louisiana and elsewhere agree on one crucial first step Medicaid enrollees must take regardless of eligibility status: They must fill out and return their Medicaid renewal packets.

“That Medicaid paperwork, it’s beneficial for everybody to finish it up,” said Geoffrey Oliver, who leads Connecting Kids to Coverage, a program of Legal Services of Eastern Missouri that helps families navigate the enrollment process.

If people return the forms and are found to be ineligible, states pass along their information to online insurance exchanges such as healthcare.gov. The exchanges will follow up with people and share health plan options, functioning as another tap on the shoulder to prevent people from becoming uninsured.

People shouldn’t assume they can’t afford marketplace plans, insurance experts say. Many can enroll in low- to no-cost coverage. Roughly 2.7 million people are likely to be eligible for discounted plans, federal estimates show, representing about one-third of all those expected to be ineligible for Medicaid. Of those, about 1.7 million will qualify for zero-premium plans.

Another reason to fill out the packet: Even if adults in a household no longer qualify for Medicaid coverage, or now have employer coverage, children may still be eligible for public plans.

A message plastered on a billboard in Randolph County, Missouri, reminds people about Medicaid renewal in big, bold letters: “Don’t miss this letter.” About 34% of people living in the central Missouri county are covered by Medicaid, according to a tracker maintained by Washington University in St. Louis.

If people throughout the country fail to turn in the renewal packet, they run the risk of falling through the cracks, said Adrianna McIntyre, an assistant professor of health policy at Harvard. Being uninsured can lead people to postpone preventive care — and cause them to end up in debilitating medical debt if emergencies happen.

Most of the millions cut from Medicaid so far lost their benefits because they didn’t complete the paperwork, not that they were deemed ineligible, according to KFF. And patient advocates worry enrollees may never have received the packet. Many recipients have likely moved and changed addresses but have not updated their contact information with states. Advocates fear those issues may be felt harder in places such as Louisiana, where many people have been displaced by floods and hurricanes in the past three years.

In some states, Medicaid recipients can check their eligibility status online. Elsewhere, they can ask free navigators, such as Morrison, for help checking on their packets.