California Removes 336,000 Children from Health Care Plan

Following the ending of the federal government's pandemic era Medicaid protections, California has removed 336,000 children from the health care plan.

The Kaiser Family Foundation's Medicaid Enrollment and Unwinding Tracker discovered millions of Americans had been de-enrolled from the plan after the government ended its continuous enrollment policy it enacted during the pandemic.

At least 19.6 million Medicaid enrollees have been taken off their plans across the country, roughly 30 percent of total enrollees since the cutting process began.

In California, 1.6 million residents had their Medicaid policies ended, while 6.1 million were able to continue their coverage after the unwinding period. A significant number of those millions, roughly 336,000, were children.

While many were not approved for continued Medicaid coverage, a substantial number of these residents were actually removed due to procedural reasons. The KFF found that 69 percent of those removed no longer had coverage because they didn't complete the renewal process.

In California specifically, 76 percent of its de-enrolled population were because of procedural reasons like missing the form deadline.

Typically, this 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.

Louise Norris, a health policy analyst for healthinsurance.org, said the high numbers of people de-enrolled in California stems from the fact that its Medicaid population is already so large as one of the most populous states.

Still, there are clear differences between how the state has approached disenrollments post pandemic.

"California and New York both have higher-than-average income limits for kids to qualify for Medicaid or CHIP," Norris told Newsweek, adding that only seven other states have a higher Medicaid income limit than California.

This means that while its numbers might seem high on the surface, the state likely protected a substantial number of adults and children from losing coverage.

"Many people during Covid lost their jobs and relied heavily on the Medicaid system to provide health insurance but as they started working again the Covid Medicaid protection allowed them to stay on Medicaid," Chris Fong, the CEO of Smile Insurance, told Newsweek. "The number of disenrollment in these two states (California and New York) due to procedural issues is not significant."

Things were done differently in other states. In Florida and Texas, for example, state governments did not adopt any Medicaid expansion, which allows more people to qualify for government healthcare.

Texas lost 2.1 million residents on Medicaid, while Florida de-enrolled 1.4 million this year. When it came to the reason for the lost coverage, only 66 and 57 percent were taken off policies due to procedural reasons, KFF found.

Those who find themselves in this situation should immediately contact their state Medicaid agency and reapply if they still qualify, Fong added.

"The common story amongst the people we meet is that they were never provided noticed that they lost Medicaid nor given the chance to appeal," Fong said. "They usually only find out that they have lost Medicaid when they try going to the doctor and they are told they have no insurance."