CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Millions of Americans could be losing Medicaid coverage starting in April. This is because states will now have to begin checking enrollees' Medicaid eligibility, a process that was put on hold due to the pandemic.
According to the Department of Health and Human Services, 15 million Americans are expected to lose Medicaid coverage. Many of those people won't be eligible for Medicaid, but there are now growing concerns that even people who do qualify will lose their coverage.
THE QUESTION
Could you still lose Medicaid coverage even if you do qualify?
SOURCES
THE ANSWER
Yes, you could still lose Medicaid coverage even if you do qualify.
WHAT WE FOUND
According to NCDHHS, around 300,000 people in North Carolina could be on track to lose their Medicaid coverage.
Before COVID-19, people who were using Medicaid had to be recertified every year with information on family size and income to see if they could continue with the coverage. In 2020, states were prohibited from cutting people off from Medicaid because of the public health crisis.
However, Congress recently passed a more than 4,000-page, $1.7 trillion bill that funds the federal government and, tucked in it, is a provision that would eliminate Medicaid coverage protections from the ongoing public health emergency declaration.
To stay on Medicaid, families would have to meet specific requirements in North Carolina. For example, those families must be low-income and have no other source of health insurance.
However, DHHS estimates 6.8 million people will lose Medicaid coverage, even if they remain eligible for the program. This may be because they don't receive their renewal notice, can't provide documentation required by the state, or don't submit documents by the deadline.
"If you ignore your renewal packet from Medicaid, you get disenrolled if they can't automatically renew you with the information they have on file," Norris said.
Contact Meghan Bragg at mbragg@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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