Washington, DC — Today, the Biden administration announced that it is requiring states to take immediate action to ensure their systems to automatically renew coverage do not disenroll people who currently qualify for Medicaid. This action is essential to protecting coverage for people who rely on Medicaid and will especially help children and people of color stay covered. If states refuse to follow the law, they will lose access to enhanced Medicaid funding made available by Congress to administer the unwinding process.
Some states like Florida, Georgia, and Texas, have been kicking people off the rolls who are still eligible, including thousands of children. Many of the states that are needlessly throwing people off the rolls have also failed to expand Medicaid, showing how some governors are using the redetermination process as another way to limit Medicaid enrollment. In response, Protect Our Care Chair Leslie Dach issued the following statement:
“This action by the Biden administration is a critical step to protect health coverage during the Medicaid redetermination process. It is unacceptable for children and families to lose Medicaid coverage because their state’s renewal system is not properly run. Governors bear responsibility for ensuring people who qualify for Medicaid are not being kicked off, and the administration is right to tell states that if they don’t take appropriate steps to prevent needless coverage loss, they will lose federal Medicaid funding. Many of the states that are failing to keep people covered, like Texas, Georgia and Florida, are the same ones that have rejected Medicaid expansion, leaving families with no place to turn for basic health care. Every state elected official must think of their own families and what it would be like if health care was ripped away from them for no reason.”