15 Million People Could Lose Coverage as Nightmarish Medicaid Purge Begins

On Saturday, April 1, states began to sever an anticipated 15 million low-income Americans from Medicaid rolls that ballooned to record heights because of a pandemic-era promise that people with the health insurance could keep it –– a federal promise that is going away.

"Millions of people, working adults, parents with children, will lose Medicaid when they try to re-enroll," said Ellen Taverna, associate director of the Together for Medicaid program at Community Catalyst. Of those, she estimated 380,000 are working adults who won't be eligible for other health coverage because they make too little to qualify for Obamacare subsidies, while making too much to sign up for Medicaid.

According to a December 2022 survey from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, an alarming 64% of adults in Medicaid households weren't aware that the program rules were changing.

"Unfortunately we're going to see it in real time, with children and people losing coverage simply because people are unaware of what's happening. That's the concern, that people will go without coverage for months and then go through bureaucracy and red tape to have to reenroll." ~ Ellen Taverna