More than $100 billion in extra federal Medicaid funds is expected to be given to states to help them get through the coronavirus pandemic, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation analysis released on Tuesday.
Kaiser projects that enrollment in Medicaid will have increased by 22.2 million people between fiscal year 2019 and the end of fiscal year 2022.
But enrollment is expected to go down significantly when the public health emergency ends and states are once again permitted to review eligibility for coverage — which could begin as soon as Aug. 1 if the declaration is not renewed.
The Kaiser analysis estimates that between 5.3 million and 14.2 million people could be dropped during fiscal year 2023, with the largest losses occurring among low-income adults who qualify under Medicaid expansion, certain other adults, and children.
The federal government has been providing billions in federal aid to states during the pandemic on the condition that they would not remove people from Medicaid until the public health emergency ends.
This has been a lucrative deal for states, which have spent some $47 billion to cover the pandemic Medicaid enrollees, only half of the funds they have received from the federal government, USA Today reported.
CNN estimates that enrollees could lose coverage for various reasons, such as no longer meeting income or other criteria. There could also be administrative difficulties that could lead to loss of coverage, such as failing to receive or properly fill out the renewal paperwork.
The augmented Medicaid match was designed to quickly provide broad fiscal relief for states, said Robin Rudowitz, director of Kaiser's Program on Medicaid and the Uninsured and co-author of the analysis.
"How states implement the unwinding of the continuous enrollment requirement will make a really big difference in how many people are able to retain coverage," Rudowitz said.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.