Tens of thousands of Medicaid recipients in Nevada will be without health insurance now that the pandemic-era continuous coverage policy for the program has ended.
Nevada Health Link, the state’s health insurance exchange, has been sending alerts to the 70,000 residents who were not aware they are no longer eligible.
“So now we are able to text people who have been transferred over to us from Medicaid and let them know that, ‘Hey, you no longer qualify for Medicaid, you lost your coverage, you can come over to Nevada Health Link to stay insured,'” Nevada Health Link Communications Officer Katie Charleson told KVVU TV in Las Vegas.
The text alerts initially went out Monday, and now the Nevadans without coverage will need to apply for new insurance to still be covered. The application window will be open until November.
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According to Charleson, 90 percent of those who lost insurance qualify for subsidies, making insurance more affordable than it was historically. Many could earn zero-dollar premiums or pay less than $200 a month for their entire household.
According to Louise Norris, health policy analyst for healthinsurance.org, net enrollment in Nevada dropped by 4 percent, but it’s still much lower than in other states. Nevada had one of the highest rates of procedural disenrollments, with 93 percent taken off the coverage because the state didn’t have enough information to determine whether they were eligible.
“This is problematic, as some people who have lost coverage may still be eligible, but experiencing problems with accessing care until they can get re-enrolled,” Norris told Newsweek.
“Some people might find that they’re still eligible for Medicaid despite a procedural disenrollment, and Nevada Health Link will be able to direct them back to Medicaid if they’re eligible to re-enroll.”
Problem Across the Country
Nationally, millions of Americans have lost their insurance due to Medicaid’s unwinding process, which went into effect this year. The policy reversed the prior pandemic-era guidance that kept recipients on their Medicaid plans without having to reapply.
Altogether, at least 19.6 million Medicaid enrollees were taken off their plans, according to a new Kaiser Family Foundation report. This makes up 30 percent of enrollees since Medicaid began its unwinding process.
Across the country, the number of disenrollees per state typically came down to how many people already lived there.
The top 10 states for Medicaid disenrollments are: Texas (2.1 million), California (1.6 million), Florida (1.4 million), New York (1.4 million), Pennsylvania (848,000), Massachusetts (750,000), Ohio (707,000), Oklahoma (690,000), Michigan (687,000) and Arizona (611,000).
“Since their Medicaid populations are so large, it makes sense that they also have the highest number of disenrollments during the unwinding period,” Norris said. “The number of eligibility redeterminations they’re processing each month is higher than some states’ total Medicaid enrollment.”
Across the board, procedural reasons like missing a deadline or having an incorrect updated address saw the bulk of the Medicaid disenrollments. That made up about 69 percent of those removed, the KFF found.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.