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Millions of children may lose Medicaid: what can be done to help prevent them from becoming uninsured?
Millions of children may lose Medicaid: what can be done to help prevent them from becoming uninsured?
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Author(s):
- Alker, Joan, author
Brooks, Tricia, author - Contributor(s):
- Georgetown University. Center for Children and Families, issuing body.
- Publication:
- [Washington, DC] : Georgetown University Health Policy Institute, Center for Children and Families, February 2022
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Insurance Coverage -- statistics & numerical data
Medicaid -- statistics & numerical data
Child
State Government
United States
State Children's Health Insurance Program (U.S.) - Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- About half of children in the United States (40 million) are now insured through Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)--the vast majority in Medicaid. These children have had stability in their Medicaid coverage during the COVID-19 public health emergency due to a continuous coverage requirement, but this protection is likely to expire sometime in 2022--perhaps as soon as April. States will have to recheck eligibility for everyone enrolled in Medicaid including children. During this unprecedented event, we estimate that at least 6.7 million children are likely to lose their Medicaid coverage and are at considerable risk for becoming uninsured for some period of time. For reference, in 2019 (the last year for which data is available), 4.4 million children were uninsured according to the Census Bureau. When this mass eligibility redetermination happens, the outcomes will vary enormously for children depending on where they live and how well their states handle the transition. State Medicaid and CHIP policy choices matter, as will states’ administrative capacity and desire to get this right. Children in all states are at risk of losing their health insurance but those living in Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Nevada, and Texas are especially at risk. Children could lose coverage in one of two ways: become eligible for other coverage (more than half for CHIP) and get lost in transition; or they could remain eligible for Medicaid but lose their coverage due to procedural reasons. It is critical that state and federal policymakers act to minimize coverage losses, make data available to the public, and intervene quickly if children begin to lose coverage and end up uninsured.
- Copyright:
- Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY license. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (14 pages))
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 9918523081806676 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918523081806676