Roughly 84 million people in the U.S., including 7.2 million low-income seniors, are covered by Medicaid, which has grown by 20 million people since January 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
But as states begin checking everyone’s eligibility for Medicaid for the first time in three years, as many as 14 million people could lose access to that health care coverage.
At the beginning of the pandemic, the federal government prohibited states from kicking people off Medicaid, even if they were no longer eligible. Before the pandemic, people would regularly lose their Medicaid coverage if they started making too much money to qualify for the program, gained healthcare coverage through their employer, or moved into a new state.
Over the next year, states will be required to start checking the eligibility again of every person who is on Medicaid. People will have to fill out forms to verify their personal information, including address, income, and household size.
Some states are moving faster than others to check eligibility. Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oklahoma, and West Virginia are among the states that will begin removing ineligible Medicaid recipients as early as April.
Other states will start taking that step in May, June, or July.
Not everyone will be removed from the program all at once. States plan to verify all recipients’ eligibility over periods of nine months to one year.
