15 million will lose Medicaid coverage, most because of paperwork and bureaucracy.
700,000 in Illinois will be dropped.
Navigating the healthcare system of Medicare and private insurance can be hell.
I know this because as a 75-year old on Medicare and Aetna Medicare Advantage, I seem to spend an inordinate amount of my time trying to do it.
And even I fail too frequently.
I often think of those older than me, or poorer than me, or less knowledgable about working the system, and trying to get the healthcare and other services they require.
Our for-profit healthcare system is not only not user friendly, it is positively hostile.
Kaiser Health News reports that more than 600,000 Americans have lost Medicaid coverage since pandemic protections ended on April 1.
That’s when President Biden officially called an end to the Covid crisis.
A KFF Health News analysis of state data shows the vast majority were removed from state rolls for not completing paperwork or completing it incorrectly.
Is it a surprise that the most needy of our people, those who depend on Medicaid for medical coverage, might be those who are less able to navigate the bureaucracy?
And why should skill at navigating a bureaucracy be a requirement for receiving healthcare?
Before Biden officially ended the pandemic, more than 1 in 4 Americans — 93 million — were covered by Medicaid or CHIP, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, according to KFF Health News’ analysis of the latest enrollment data. Half of all kids are covered by the programs.
About 15 million people will be dropped over the next year as states review participants’ eligibility.
The Chicago Tribune reports that more than 47,000 Illinois residents lost Medicaid health insurance coverage this month.
The federal government has estimated that about 700,000 people in Illinois may lose Medicaid coverage by the time the process is complete.
The majority of those losing coverage will be as a result of messed up paperwork.
Nationally, at least 3.8 million people had lost Medicaid as of Aug. 1, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. About 32% of people who were up for Medicaid renewals across 18 states in April lost coverage, according to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
There’s wide variation in how many people are losing coverage in each state. In Illinois, about 24% of people up for renewals, so far, have lost coverage. In Texas, 82% of people up for Medicaid redeterminations have been disenrolled. (Chicago Tribune)
Tens of thousands of children are losing coverage even though some may still qualify for Medicaid or CHIP.
In its first month of reviews, South Dakota ended coverage for 10% of all Medicaid and CHIP enrollees in the state. More than half of them were children. In Arkansas, about 40% were kids.
How do we allow our country to treat our people like this?