Nearly one-quarter of adults booted from Medicaid are still uninsured, survey finds

Nearly a quarter of adults who say they were disenrolled from Medicaid in the past year remain uninsured since states began reopening eligibility checks, according to a new report investigation It was released on Friday by KFF.

The study is the first to examine the health insurance status of adults enrolled in Medicaid in early 2023, just before states resumed eligibility screening and disenrollment after pandemic-era protections ended.

They found that nearly half of those who had their enrollment canceled ended up re-enrolling in the program weeks or months later, suggesting their coverage was likely removed in error. it was done.

Among dropouts, 28% had other forms of insurance, 16% with employer-sponsored insurance, 9% with Medicare, and 8% with purchasing their own insurance through the Affordable Care Act Marketplace. did.

But not having insurance, even for a short period of time, can delay the care you need. 56% said they skipped or delayed receiving a medical service or prescription while renewing their insurance.

States that have not expanded Medicaid had the highest proportion of uninsured residents, but even in states that have expanded, only 6% of pre-abolition enrollees with household incomes less than $20,000 (the majority still qualify for Medicaid). one group) said they were uninsured. I am currently uninsured.

Seven in 10 adults who left Medicaid at some point in the termination process said they became uninsured when they lost Medicaid coverage.

The study interviewed more than 1,200 adults and found that about 1 in 5 said they would be disenrolled from Medicaid at some point in 2023. Since the rollback process began, KFF estimates that more than 20 million people have been kicked off Medicaid, the majority of whom are excluded from Medicaid. If they are refused for procedural reasons such as failure to submit required documents.

That number is likely to increase further. Each state has one year to complete this process, but some states started later than others.

Before the pandemic, people were moving in and out of Medicaid for a variety of reasons. Participants lost coverage if they earned too much or did not provide the necessary information to verify their income or residence.

But during the public health emergency, changes in income and missed paperwork weren’t an issue. As a result, Medicaid enrollment increased by more than 30% to more than 90 million people.

But Congress ended those protections, allowing states to reevaluate eligibility and remove people from Medicaid rolls starting in April 2023.

The survey found that people may have little knowledge that they are being deregistered. Nearly one in three adults who were disenrolled realized they had lost coverage only when they sought medical care, such as going to the doctor or pharmacy.

The KFF survey of 1,227 adults enrolled in Medicaid in early 2023, prior to the start of termination on April 1, 2023, was conducted from February 15, 2024 to March 11, 2024. . The margin of sampling error was plus or minus. 4 percentage points.