Preliminary data for April 2022 shows that total enrollment in Medicaid/Children’s Health Insurance plans has increased by 23.9% since February 2020 (August 3) Report Presented by the Kaiser Family Foundation. This represents an increase of 17 million people, bringing the total number of registrations to 88.3 million.
The KFF report analyzes data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Performance Indicators Program.it comes after the department of health and human services Announce In early 2022, the national uninsured rate hit a record low of 8%.
The increase in enrollment may be due to economic changes, policy changes such as the expansion of Medicaid in the Affordable Care Act, and the temporary continuous enrollment requirement in the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, the report said.
The continuous enrollment requirement prohibits states from deregistering Medicaid enrollees during the pandemic emergency. In return, states will temporarily increase the matching rate for federal Medicaid. Continuous enrollment has suspended Medicaid “churning,” meaning people temporarily lose coverage when they drop out of coverage and then have to re-insure.
From 2020 to 2022, total Medicaid/CHIP enrollment in all states increased. Oklahoma expanded Medicaid in July 2021 with the largest increase at 64.5% and Connecticut the lowest at 14.8%. Utah, Idaho, Nebraska and Missouri have also expanded Medicaid over the past two years.
From 2020 to 2022, most of the increase in enrollment came from Medicaid, an increase of 25.9%, or 16.7 million enrollees. Meanwhile, CHIP increased by only 5%, or 336,000 registrants, and 15 states saw a decline in registrants. The KFF found that this may be due to changes in household income that led children to switch from CHIP to Medicaid.
From 2020 to 2022, adult enrollment increased by 33.1%, or 11.3 million adults. Child enrolment growth was slower: 14.7%, or 5.2 million children.
After the ACA Medicaid expansion was implemented in 2014, Medicaid and CHIP enrollments increased significantly. From 2017 to 2019, this trend reversed, from 73.4 million registrations to 71.2 million, a drop of 3%. The report said the decrease was due to a strong economy, but in some cases those eligible for coverage experienced challenges in the registration and renewal process.
The trend may soon change direction again. While Medicaid enrollment has continued to increase over the past two years, growth appears to be slowing, the KFF found. Additionally, many people may lose coverage when the public health emergency ends and consecutive enrollments expire. It is currently set for mid-October, but a Biden administration could extend it for another 90 days, the report said.
States have up to 14 months to resume normal operations when the continuous admission requirement ends. During this time, states will cancel people who are no longer eligible for coverage. When this happens, KFF estimates that between 5.3 million and 14.2 million people could be deregistered.
“How states manage the mass redefinition during the ‘lift’ of ongoing enrollment requirements, and how states interact with enrollees and other stakeholders, will affect the continuity of coverage for millions of Medicaid enrollees,” the report said. “
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