by: Chloe HumbertPosted on:

Most voters in the U.S. want to increase funding for Medicaid, but the elected lawmakers decided to cut people off Medicaid instead

Medicaid and CHIP continuous coverage was available because of the Public Health Emergency. But that is being ENDED because of a law passed: Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023. And the Public Health Emergency is also being ended. Even though there’s still a problem to deal with.

Image description: A graph from Data for Progress showing that voters across party lines want to increase – not cut – funding for social security medicare and medicaid. Even among republicans the lowest percentage in favour of funding medicaid is a majority at 59% and the highest support for cutting medicaid tops out at a minority of 20%. of all likely voters the numbers for increasing funding for the programs are 86% to increase Social security, 84% medicare, and 74% for medicaid. Democrats support increasing funding for them by 90%, 89%, and 82% respectively.

COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA Department of Human Services COVID-19 End of Medical Assistance (MA) & CHIP Continuous Coverage FAQ

The Public Health Emergency (PHE) is a federal declaration made by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that was put in place in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. If it is not renewed every 90 days, it ends. During the PHE, states were able to use additional money from the federal government for health care programs like Medicaid if they kept people covered through Medicaid (called Medical Assistance in PA). This means that although DHS continued to send annual renewal paperwork to Medical Assistance (MA) recipients, people generally did not lose their MA coverage if their income changed or they failed to complete a renewal. A recent federal law ends the continuous coverage requirement on April 1, 2023. Starting April 1, 2023, Pennsylvania and other states will have to start completing disenrollments if households are ineligible for MA at the time of their renewal or do not complete their renewal. Everyone with MA or CHIP coverage will need to submit a renewal to see if they are still eligible.