Right before the holiday recess, leaders in Congress reached a sweeping health policy deal. The omnibus bill contains a number of healthcare stipulations, including an easing of Medicare pay cuts to physicians, modest investments in future pandemic preparedness, and major changes to Medicaid enrollment policy.
The legislation allows state Medicaid agencies to begin kicking adults off of the Medicaid rolls on April 1st, regardless of the status of the Covid-19 public health emergency, which is now set to expire on May 11th. The people most impacted by the bill are those who signed up for Medicaid coverage during the Covid-19 pandemic. Between five and 14 million Americans could lose their Medicaid coverage this spring, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the nonpartisan health policy organization.
In a memorandum issued January 30th, referring to the omnibus bill the White House asserted that “Congress enacted an orderly wind-down of [the public health emergency] rules to ensure that patients do not lose access to care unpredictably.” This begs the question, does it materially matter whether people are deprived of access to care predictably or unpredictably? Normally, states run routine checks – also called redeterminations – on Medicaid enrollees to ensure they’re still eligible for the program.