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At least 13 million people lost Medicaid this year, with Texas an epicenter of the 'unwinding' (www.nbcnews.com)

submitted 10 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

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Eligibility checks for Medicaid were paused during the pandemic. Many people are still losing coverage in the bureaucratic jumble that has ensued since they resumed.

...

Ordinarily, people enrolled in Medicaid — government-provided health insurance for people with low incomes or disabilities — go through eligibility checks every year to determine whether they can renew coverage. But in March 2020, the federal government froze the checks as part of its public health emergency. So people were continuously enrolled in Medicaid, and no one was dropped for three years.

That stopped when President Joe Biden ended the emergency in the spring. Many months later, Medicaid enrollees across the country are still getting letters like Olenski’s as part of the "unwinding" process, which is scheduled to continue through May. After that, the pre-pandemic status quo resumes.

As of Dec. 20, at least 13 million people had been disenrolled from Medicaid in 2023, according to an analysis by KFF, a nonprofit group focused on health policy. Net enrollment in the program (given that some people were newly enrolled or have re-enrolled) has dropped by around 7.8 million, according to an analysis by the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families.

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[-] crsu@lemmy.world 34 points 10 months ago

Texas is the third world

[-] tartan@lemmy.world 35 points 10 months ago

I’ve lived in “third world countries”, and I’ve lived in Texas. Texas is worse.

[-] Vilian@lemmy.ca 20 points 10 months ago

i don't die to debt going to the hospital and i live in a third world country

[-] tsonfeir@lemm.ee 5 points 10 months ago

We should just let Texas split from the US. All the right wingers can move there and they can have their “freedom.”

The rest of us can get on with life.

[-] tartan@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

Agreed, fucking let them. They try all the time, it’s obviously something they want. It would be good riddance.

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/3886527-texas-lawmaker-files-texit-bill-to-spur-vote-on-exploring-secession-from-us/

[-] tsonfeir@lemm.ee 2 points 10 months ago

It would be like brexit, so much fun to watch.

[-] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 7 points 10 months ago

Texas treats being the dumbest state in the US as a serious trophy that it aggressively defends by constantly shooting itself in the foot and screaming to the rest of the country “hah, SEE WE SHOWED THOSE POOR PEOPLE WHO IS BOSS”.

The other states always feel really awkward and kind of traumatized by seeing Texas repeatedly empty a firearm into their foot while screaming at…themselves? but whenever another state offers to drive them to the hospital Texas spits in their face and starts screaming even louder about how they don’t need handouts… which usually culminates in them emptying another magazine of rounds into their foot to put a pin on the point. Eventually they mercifully pass out from the pain and Connecticut takes them in the back of their Camry and just never says a word about it and Texas usually has lost enough blood by that point that it doesn’t remember.

[+] AnneBonny@lemmy.dbzer0.com -15 points 10 months ago

How is this the fault of Texas?

[-] blackbelt352@lemmy.world 15 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Shit policy making designed to hurt the people at the lowest rungs of society and absolve those with the real power of any responsibility.

[-] AnneBonny@lemmy.dbzer0.com -2 points 10 months ago

This is due to a change in federal policy because the public health emergency declared due to COVID has come to an end.

Ordinarily, people enrolled in Medicaid — government-provided health insurance for people with low incomes or disabilities — go through eligibility checks every year to determine whether they can renew coverage. But in March 2020, the federal government froze the checks as part of its public health emergency. So people were continuously enrolled in Medicaid, and no one was dropped for three years.

That stopped when President Joe Biden ended the emergency in the spring. Many months later, Medicaid enrollees across the country are still getting letters like Olenski’s as part of the “unwinding” process, which is scheduled to continue through May. After that, the pre-pandemic status quo resumes.

[-] SatanicNotMessianic@lemmy.ml 11 points 10 months ago

To prevent gaps in insurance coverage, some states, such as California and Rhode Island, will automatically enroll people who lose Medicaid in such marketplace plans. But elsewhere, Morrison and workers at similar nonprofit health groups nationwide are helping people navigate the difficult administrative process of finding the right plan. Known as “navigators” or “assisters” and publicly funded, they work with patients free of charge.

Also, remind me where Texas stood on Medicaid expansion.

[-] blurg@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago

In addition to the Texas stand on Medicaid expansion, from the article:

Texas is "ground zero" for the Medicaid unwinding, Alker said. The state leads the U.S. in disenrollments, with around 1.7 million this year, according to KFF.

[-] AA5B@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Don’t forget the very next line, Texas is responsible for …

As of late November, nearly 990,000 renewal applications in the state had been denied for procedural reasons.

And there’s this line

We did require Texas to reinstate over 90,000 people that were incorrectly disenrolled from the program,

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

It isn't. And yet Texas is still the third world.

[-] werefreeatlast@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

Like I said, just fly the sick to other states and drop them off at suburbs.

[-] Transporter_Room_3@startrek.website 31 points 10 months ago

My wife lost Medicaid and now has to choose between any chance of ever getting our own place, or being able to live without nearly constant pain.

Sure do love all this American dream I'm living.

[-] just_change_it@lemmy.world 22 points 10 months ago

Be productive or die. That's the message they're sending.

That's what antivax is. That's what being against masks was. That's what crushing obamacare was. That's what deregulation is all about. And that's what the republican platform is built on. Be useful or die. Can't make healthy babies? Just die. Can't afford healthcare? Just die. Survival of the fittest (e.g. wealthiest) until the world ends.

[-] afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world -3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

No. Being productive has nothing to do with anything. How many times in your life would you have gotten on your knees to have a plumber or a car mechanic or a EMT or an electrician or heck even someone who could make a decent breakfast? How many times in your life have you demanded the universe give you an investment banker, a public policy analyst, an economist, or someone who sits on thinktanks?

I would like us to grasp the idea that the value we produce is not connected to the compensation for that value. You can explain it to my landlord who has never worked a day in his life and inherited 17 homes.

[-] ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Do you think this person was speaking in support of those that think human life is only worth its level of productivity...?

[-] bradorsomething@ttrpg.network 7 points 10 months ago

Texas is so busy messing with itself.

[-] werefreeatlast@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

Hey! Texas has a problem! Ship the sick people to Chicago and drop them off in the suburbs?

[-] BigMacHole@lemm.ee 0 points 10 months ago

Pro Life!

this post was submitted on 30 Dec 2023

261 points (98.9% liked)

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