Missouri Independent: Nearly half of recent Missouri Medicaid terminations have been children
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Paperwork issues were to blame for most kids who lost coverage, raising some concerns those eligible for health care coverage are going without
By Clara Bates/Missouri Independent
Another 12,833 children were removed from the state’s Medicaid program in August — more than three-quarters of whom were terminated because of paperwork issues rather than being determined ineligible.
If you receive Medicaid, you need to make sure you get renewed. If you are not on Medicaid, you may qualify for coverage. Contact Samuel U Rodgers Health Center samrodgers.org/medicaid_renewals 816-889-4797 or Swope Health swopehealth.org 816-599-5590
August was the third month of the state reassessing the eligibility of every Medicaid participant, after a three year COVID-era pause on the practice. The process will take place over a year.
Around one-quarter of the state’s population is enrolled in Medicaid, the government health insurance program for low-income residents, called MO HealthNet in Missouri.
According to newly-released data from Missouri’s Department of Social Services, nearly half — 49% — of all terminations from June through August were terminations of children’s Medicaid coverage. Missouri’s share of children being disenrolled is third-highest among the 16 states that report age breakouts, according to health policy nonprofit KFF.
Over the first three months, nearly 40,000 kids total lost coverage. It’s not yet clear how many of those children were able to cycle back onto Medicaid or moved to another program.
“[Missouri] needs to look closely at why so many kids are being terminated,” said Joel Ferber, director of advocacy at Legal Services of Eastern Missouri.
And the state should “closely consider a pause on terminations while it evaluates the data,” Ferber added — an option offered by the federal government that some states such as Michigan and South Carolina have voluntarily taken up.
Caitlin Whaley, spokesperson for the Department of Social Services, said because children make up around half of the Medicaid caseload in Missouri, “their disenrollment rate has been roughly proportionate to their share of the overall MO HealthNet population.”
But the income limit for kids to be on Medicaid is higher than it is for adults. Even if parents lose coverage, kids may still qualify, though they sometimes fall through the cracks.