Medicaid coverage is expiring for millions of Americans – but there's a proven way to keep many of them insured | Health & Fitness

About 5 million to 14 million Americans could soon lose their health insurance coverage through Medicaid – the government-funded U.S. health insurer for low-income Americans.

That’s because once the federal government designated the COVID-19 pandemic a “public health emergency” in March 2020, it changed Medicaid rules.

In exchange for agreeing to not remove anyone from the program, the states got more funding to run it.

The number of people enrolled soared to 90.9 million in September 2022, up 28% from February 2020. That’s roughly 1 in 4 of all Americans.

But the government’s continuous enrollment policy is slated to expire starting in April and the public health emergency is scheduled to officially end on May 11, 2023.

Unless those whose coverage expires actively sign up for new coverage, they could become uninsured – even if, like many uninsured Americans today, they would qualify for free or discounted coverage if they were to apply through an ACA health insurance exchange.

It’s still unclear how automatic enrollment policies can comply with the ACA’s rules to limit the number of people who will otherwise become uninsured when they lose Medicaid coverage.

But there are a variety of different proposals out there. Some states, including Maryland, California and – no surprise – Massachusetts, are starting to experiment with different approaches.

So once the pandemic-related Medicaid policies end, there will probably be new evidence that suggests which design works best.

This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. The Conversation is trustworthy news from experts, from an independent nonprofit. Try our free newsletters.

Mark Shepard has received research funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Commonwealth Fund, the Arnold Foundation, and Harvard University.