As Evangelina Hernandez, a resident of Wichita, Kansas, has observed her autistic twin sons display increasingly severe symptoms over the past few months, her pleas for help and support have gone unheard. The mounting $3,000 monthly cost for their prescriptions and necessary doctor visits is something she cannot afford without Medicaid support.
In May, Hernandez’s sons, along with three of their sisters, were removed from their health insurance coverage in the state’s comprehensive review of all Medicaid recipients. Despite her prompt response to renewal forms and efforts to secure the children’s rights to coverage, Hernandez was met with bureaucratic stalling, being repeatedly told that her children's renewal was still being processed.
Ever since her children's coverage was finally reinstated just over a week ago, Hernandez has faced further red tape. The pharmacy informed her they had issues with the new enrollee information and could only provide medication for one of her sons due to errors in the other's file.
The grave impact of these delays is not confined to Hernandez’s family alone. Across America, hundreds of thousands of children have been unwittingly stripped off of Medicaid. It is estimated that of the over 87 million people enrolled in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program who are currently undergoing eligibility reviews, a sizable chunk could lose coverage for the first time since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The KFF, formerly the Kaiser Family Foundation, notes at least 5.4 million individuals have already lost their benefits since States regained the ability to review Medicaid recipient eligibility at the beginning of April when a pandemic relief program expired.
Data collected shows that a disproportionate amount of terminations are happening to children. For instance, in Texas, nearly half a million non-disabled children lost coverage between April and the end of July. This alarming figure accounted for 81% of the state's total disenrollments. States like Kansas, Idaho, and Missouri also report that at least half of those losing benefits are children.
The Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families estimates as many as 6.7 million children are at risk of losing their benefits. Joan Alker, the Center's executive director, stressed the potential impact of this issue, noting that Medicaid covers about half of kids in the US.
The bulk of people who have lost their coverage have been dropped for procedural reasons, such as failing to complete renewal forms. However, some worry that many of these terminations could be unwarranted and eligible cases might be left uninsured.
In Idaho, health policy associate at Idaho Voices for Children, Hillarie Hagen, has voiced her concern over the sharp decrease in both Medicaid and CHIP enrollees, whilst welfare administrator Shane Leach urges families to reapply for benefits if they believe they qualify.
Jennifer Tolbert of KFF’s Program on Medicaid and the Uninsured, emphasizes parents may not realize that even if they no longer qualify for Medicaid, their children might. In cases like the one that Tanya Harris, a resident of Jacksonville, Florida, experienced, mistakes and omissions had drastic consequences for her children's health.
Non-profit organizations and advocates are working tirelessly to highlight the importance of submitting renewal documents and are urging the government and those in power to do more. Health policy advisor Heather Braum of Kansas Action for Children, sums up the urgency saying, “Kids’ medical care… can be very time sensitive… If it gets delayed, it can have a permanent impact on their lives. Outcomes can be very different. And that’s inexcusable to me.”
