John,

At the start of the COVID pandemic, Congress enacted the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, which required state Medicaid programs to keep people continuously enrolled through the end of the public health emergency in exchange for enhanced federal funding. In 2022, Congress voted to end the continuous enrollment provision on March 31, 2023.

The results have been catastrophic.

Since Medicaid unwinding began in April, at least 5,677,000 Medicaid recipients have lost health care coverage, including at least 1,162,000 children—or 1 in 4 across the 15 states that reported terminations by age.¹

The overwhelming majority of people who have lost coverage in most states were dropped because of technicalities or failing to turn in a renewal form, not because state officials determined they no longer meet Medicaid income or eligibility limits. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently sent letters to State Medicaid Directors in all 50 states, requiring them to fix their auto-renewals process to ensure that eligible individuals aren’t erroneously denied coverage.²

The Biden administration can identify which states have the most serious issues and use their congressionally granted power to monitor and oversee the Medicaid processes.

Add your name to call on President Biden to hold states accountable for erroneously purging millions of adults and children off the Medicaid rolls.

The eligibility systems in several states are conducting auto-renewals on the family level, instead of the individual level. Because children tend to have higher eligibility thresholds than their parents, they may qualify for coverage through Medicaid or CHIP, even though their parents no longer qualify.

The Biden administration has expressed deep concerns over people being erroneously dropped from Medicaid rolls and has urged state Medicaid agencies to take a more careful approach to determining eligibility and doing more targeted outreach to Medicaid recipients.³ The Biden administration has the authority to oversee the Medicaid process and, if needed, withhold funding and/or pause terminations from states improperly purging low-income residents. We need to show the administration there is strong support for their vigorous enforcement of the law protecting people from wrongful terminations.

SIGN THE PETITION: Call on the Biden administration to hold state Medicaid agencies accountable for erroneously purging low-income children and adults from Medicaid.

Thank you for all you do to protect the most vulnerable,

Deborah Weinstein
Executive Director, Coalition on Human Needs

¹ Medicaid Enrollment and Unwinding Tracker
² CMS Takes Action to Protect Health Care Coverage for Children and Families
³ Biden administration urges states to slow down on dropping people from Medicaid