Texas Removes 1.3 Million Children From Health Care Plan

Texas dropped 1.3 million children from Medicaid, according to recent data from the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF).

The numbers from this month reveal at least 19.6 million Medicaid enrollees had been taken off their plans across the country. That’s roughly 30 percent of enrollees since Medicaid began its cutting process. The change permits states to remove Americans who are no longer eligible for the health care. During the COVID-19 pandemic, recipients were automatically reenrolled for the next year.

However, not all states were equally as aggressive during the process. While Texas kicked off the highest number of Medicaid enrollees, other states saw moderate decreases.

Southern states like Texas and South Carolina have been vocal in targeting people in the process that are no longer believed to be eligible or did not respond to renewal requests during the pandemic.

Texas kicked off 2.1 million Medicaid enrollees and kept on 1.9 million. That was highly concentrated among children, who made up 65 percent of the unenrolled.

It’s important to note, however, that a substantial number of those who no longer have Medicaid were removed for procedural reasons. The KFF found that 69 percent of those removed no longer had coverage because they didn’t complete the renewal process.

That frequently happens when states no longer have current contact information for the enrollees or if the enrollee doesn’t know or understand how to complete the renewal within a set time. In Texas, it accounted for 66 percent of those removed.

Tiffany Young, deputy chief press officer for Texas Health and Human Services, said redetermining eligibility for 6 million Medicaid clients over the course of a year has been a “monumental task.”

“Texas has from April 2023 to May 2024 to initiate and complete redeterminations for all 6 million people who were enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP as of March 31, 2023,” Young told Newsweek. “We will continue to process applications as quickly as possible to serve all eligible Texans.”

Chris Fong, CEO of Smile Insurance Group, said the heightened numbers in Texas likely reflect that it’s one of the states making it more challenging to qualify, apply or even speak with someone in the Medicaid department.

“It is our belief that a large portion of them qualified through the temporary COVID Medicaid expansion and now don’t qualify,” Fong told Newsweek, adding that reinstatement will be more difficult in Texas compared to other states.

For children, the process could be slightly easier, as Fong said the qualifications are more relaxed in the children’s Medicaid program.

“The health care situation in Texas is very challenging, which is causing many people to go without health insurance in Texas,” Fong said. “An adult may financially qualify for Medicaid in Texas, but they are not able to get Medicaid because they do not have a dependent child under 18.

“The additional complication is if they were to try to apply for a Marketplace plan, they will likely not get any tax credits because the Marketplace system will kick the application out to Medicaid due to their income.”

Generally, people can be removed from Medicaid for various reasons. Sometimes, they age out of an eligibility category, are no longer pregnant or had an increase in income.

But in Texas, it’s likely the lower-than-average Medicaid income limit for children has led to many getting kicked off in the aftermath of the pandemic-era policy.

“So although coverage continued for kids in Texas during the pandemic even if their household income grew, kids are more likely in Texas to no longer be eligible now due to the higher household income, simply because the income limits are lower in Texas,” Louise Norris, health policy analyst for healthinsurance.org, told Newsweek.