![](\"http:\/\/www.fysiotherapieoverstegen.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Hamar.jpg\")
<\/p>\nNearly a quarter of adults disenrolled from Medicaid in the past year say they are now uninsured, according to a survey released Friday that details how tens of millions of Americans struggled to retain coverage in the government insurance program for low-income people after pandemic-era protections began expiring last spring.<\/p>\n
The first national survey of adults whose Medicaid eligibility was reviewed during the unwinding found nearly half of people who lost their government coverage signed back up weeks or months later \u2014 suggesting they should never have been dropped in the first place.<\/p>\n
While 23% reported being uninsured, an additional 28% found other coverage \u2014 through an employer, Medicare, the Affordable Care Act\u2019s insurance marketplace, or health care for members of the military, the survey by KFF found.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwenty-three percent is a striking number especially when you think about the number of people who lost Medicaid coverage,\u201d said Chima Ndumele, an associate professor of health policy at the Yale University School of Public Health.<\/p>\n
Going without insurance even for a short period of time can lead people to delay seeking care and leave them at financial risk when they do.<\/p>\n
Seven in 10 adults who were disenrolled during the unwinding process say they became uninsured at least temporarily when they lost their Medicaid coverage.<\/p>\n
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Adrienne Hamar, 49, of Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania, said she struggled to enroll in an Affordable Care Act marketplace plan this winter after the state informed her that she and her two children no longer qualified for Medicaid. They had been enrolled since 2020. She said phone lines were busy at the state\u2019s marketplace and she couldn\u2019t complete the process online.<\/p>\n
Hamar, who works as a home health aide, and her children were uninsured in March. But since April 1, they\u2019ve been enrolled in a marketplace plan that, with the help of government subsidies, costs $50 a month for the family.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was very relieved,\u201d she said. Unsure of their insurance status, Hamar said, her 23-year-old daughter delayed getting a dental checkup.<\/p>\n
Hamar\u2019s struggles were common, the survey found.<\/p>\n
Of adults enrolled in Medicaid before the unwinding, about 35% who tried to renew their coverage described the process as difficult, and about 48% said it was at least somewhat stressful.<\/p>\n
About 56% of those disenrolled say they skipped or delayed care or prescriptions while attempting to renew their Medicaid coverage.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople\u2019s current insurance status is likely to be very much in flux, and we would expect at least some of the people who say they are currently uninsured to reenroll in Medicaid \u2014 many say they are still trying \u2014 or enroll in other coverage within a short period of time,\u201d said Jennifer Tolbert, a co-author of the KFF report and the director of KFF\u2019s State Health Reform and Data Program.<\/p>\n
The survey didn\u2019t include children, and the KFF researchers said their findings therefore couldn\u2019t be extrapolated to determine how the Medicaid unwinding has affected the overall U.S. uninsured rate, which hit a record low of 7.7% in early 2023<\/a>. Nearly half of enrollees in Medicaid and the related Children\u2019s Health Insurance Program are children.<\/p>\n The unwinding, in which states are reassessing eligibility for Medicaid among millions of Americans who enrolled before or during the pandemic and dropping those who no longer qualify or did not complete the renewal process, won\u2019t be completed until later this year. Enrollment in Medicaid and CHIP grew to a record of nearly 94.5 million in April of last year, three years after the federal government prohibited states from cutting people from their rolls during the covid-19 public health emergency.<\/p>\n Nationally, states have disenrolled about 20 million people from Medicaid in the past year, most of them for procedural reasons such as failure to submit required paperwork. That number is expected to grow, as states have a few more months to redetermine enrollees\u2019 eligibility.<\/p>\n Among adults who had Medicaid prior to the start of the unwinding, 83% retained their coverage or reenrolled, while 8% found other insurance and 8% were uninsured. The share left uninsured was larger in states that have not expanded Medicaid under the ACA (17%) than in states that have (6%). Forty states have expanded Medicaid to cover everyone with an income under 138% of the federal poverty rate, or $31,200 for a family of four this year.<\/p>\n The KFF survey found that nearly 1 in 3 disenrolled adults discovered only when they sought health care \u2014 such as going to a doctor or a pharmacy \u2014 that they had been dropped from Medicaid.<\/p>\n Indira Navas of Miami found out that her 6-year-old son, Andres, had been disenrolled from Florida\u2019s Medicaid program when she took him to a doctor appointment in March. She had scheduled Andres\u2019 appointment months in advance and is frustrated that he remains uninsured and his therapy for anxiety and hyperactivity has been disrupted.<\/p>\n Navas said the state could not explain why her 12-year-old daughter, Camila, remained covered by Medicaid even though the children live in the same household with their parents.<\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t make sense that they would cover one of my children and not the other,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Kate McEvoy, executive director of the National Association of Medicaid Directors, said the sheer volume of millions of people being redetermined for eligibility has overwhelmed some state call centers trying to support enrollees.<\/p>\n She said states have tried many ways to communicate with enrollees, including through public outreach campaigns, text, email, and apps. \u201cUntil the moment your coverage is at stake, it\u2019s hard to penetrate people\u2019s busy lives,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The KFF survey, of 1,227 adults who had Medicaid coverage in early 2023 prior to the start of the unwinding on April 1, 2023, was conducted between Feb. 15, 2024, and March 11, 2024. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 4 percentage points.<\/p>\n KFF Health News correspondent Daniel Chang contributed to this article.<\/em><\/p>\n KFF Health News<\/a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF\u2014an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF<\/a>.<\/p>\n This story can be republished for free (details<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![](\"http:\/\/www.fysiotherapieoverstegen.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Navas.jpg\")
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