'15 to 18 million Americans' may lose Medicaid coverage in 2023: report

Filmmaker/activist Michael Moore has stressed, more than once, that if you like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, “thank a liberal.” Moore’s point is that those popular programs started under liberal Democratic presidents, and that it is liberals and progressives who continue to fight for them.

Funding for Medicaid is included in a $1.7 trillion bipartisan spending bill that passed in the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday, December 23 — the day after it had passed in the U.S. Senate. President Joe Biden promised to sign the bill into law “as soon as it reaches my desk.” But the bill, according to CBS News, also has a provision that allows for “millions of Americans” to be removed from Medicaid in 2023.

In an article published by CBS News’ website the day after Christmas 2022, reporter Irina Ivanova explains, “Millions of Americans gained Medicaid coverage during the pandemic. Starting next year, millions are likely to lose it. A mammoth spending bill just passed by Congress would allow states to kick some people off Medicaid starting in April. Millions would become uninsured, according to estimates from the (Biden) Administration and several health care nonprofits. The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that 15 to 18 million people will lose Medicaid coverage — or about 1 in 5 people currently in the program.”

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Kaiser’s Jennifer Tolbert told CBS News, “The reality is that millions of people are going to lose Medicaid coverage.”

Medicaid, along with Medicare, started as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society during the 1960s. During the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Kaiser, the number of Americans enrolled in Medicaid increased from 71 million to 90 million.

“In a normal year,” Ivanova notes, “many people enroll in Medicaid and many others leave as their income or circumstances change. States run routine checks on Medicaid members to make sure they're still eligible for the program, and throw out anyone who isn't. The public health emergency halted that process…. The spending bill would allow states to start kicking people off starting April 1.”

Ivanova adds, “The federal government will also wind down extra funds given to states for the added enrollees over the next year under the proposal. Before states remove Medicaid members, they are required to check patients' eligibility and notify people that they're losing coverage. However, it's not unusual for people who are eligible for Medicaid to nonetheless get dropped from the program because of language barriers or administrative oversight, Tolbert said.”

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Ivanova notes that “many people who lose Medicaid” in 2023 “will be able to find other health insurance, such as through an employer, the Affordable Care Act marketplace or, in the case of kids, the Children's Health Insurance Program.” But she adds that “about 5 million will remain uninsured — a potentially devastating situation.” And Tolbert told CBS News, “Those individuals don't really have anywhere else to go to get coverage…. Because they remain eligible for Medicaid.… they cannot go to the marketplace and get coverage.”

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