MEDICAID Cuts Start In Spring, Est. 8M Will Lose Eligibility: How To Shop For New Health Ins. Plans
- 'How to shop for new insurance if you lose Medicaid coverage,' AP News, March 19, 2023. Ed.
Medicaid coverage will end for millions of Americans in the coming months, and it will push many into unfamiliar territory - the health insurance marketplace. States will start cutting people from the government-funded plans when they no longer qualify based on income, a process that has been paused since shortly after the COVID pandemic hit. The timing of these cuts will vary.
But all states have insurance markets where people who lose Medicaid can buy new coverage with help from subsidies. Some states will even connect shoppers with a potential new plan.
Shopping for affordable insurance that covers regular doctors & prescriptions can be daunting, especially in marketplaces that offer dozens of choices and subsidies to help pay for them. Experts say it helps to start this search with a plan. Here’s a deeper look at the process. - WHAT’S HAPPENING TO MEDICAID? Nearly 85 million people are covered by government-funded Medicaid, which focuses on people with low incomes. At the start of the pandemic, the federal government prohibited states from kicking people off Medicaid if they were no longer eligible.
That ban ends this spring, and many people on Medicaid will be introduced to this so-called redetermination process for the first time.
- States are already verifying eligibility. Some, like Arizona, Arkansas & Idaho are expected to start ending coverage for ineligible people in April. Most states will be doing that in May, June and July. Federal officials estimate that more than 8 Mill people will lose eligibility & leave Medicaid mainly because their incomes have changed. - WHERE TO GET NEW COVERAGE. State-based health insurance marketplaces created by the Affordable Care Act are the only places where people can buy individual insurance with help from an income-based subsidy. They can be found through the federal government’s * healthcare.gov website.
Shoppers also can find coverage sold outside these marketplaces, but it may be risky - short-term plans can exclude coverage of certain things like a medical condition someone had before signing up. - INCOME-BASED SUBSIDIES. The cost of any new plan should be one of the first things people consider. They can get income-based subsidies to help pay monthly premiums of plans they buy on the state-based marketplaces. Those subsidies were enhanced during the pandemic. People often don’t realize they can get this help, said Jeremy Smith, director of WVa.'s health insurance navigator program, which helps shoppers find coverage. “A very large percentage of people can qualify for a plan starting at $0 per month,"...https://apnews.com/article/medicaid-
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- GOP Attacks on SNAP Could Take Food Aid from 10Mill+, Analysis Warns,
https://www.commondreams.org/news/republican-attacks-snap-10-million
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