With a go ahead from the federal government, including Democrats,
more than a dozen Republican led states have begun removing people
from their state, from their statewide Medicaid programs.
Now, they consider this the unwinding of the pandemic era of federal policy that
very temporarily barred governments from basically kicking people off the program.
And with good reason.
I mean, we're in the middle of a pandemic.
People are getting sick, people are getting hospitalized,
individuals are dying.
So the idea was,
let's not kick people off of Medicaid during this very clear emergency.
But now, because the federal government has given the green light,
these red states are able to do something known as redetermination.
The redetermination process is all about determining whether or
not an individual is eligible for Medicaid.
Our system is so disgustingly broken that you have these goons spending their
time prioritizing kicking people off of government programs that they need.
But nonetheless, there are huge problems because number one,
many Americans have been left in the dark about these changes and they don't
even know where to start when it comes to beginning the redetermination process.
The other issue is that the income threshold to qualify for
Medicaid is so damn low that you have to be making like a tiny,
tiny amount of money to qualify.
If you're making $35,000 a year, which in most cases you cannot live on,
you do not qualify for Medicaid in many of these states.
So let's give you the details.
Here's what we know.
According to Jake Johnson's reporting over at Common Dreams.
The US Health and Human Services Department has estimated that
upwards of 15 million people nationwide could lose Medicaid
coverage during the redetermination process.
And again, I really wanna emphasize that it would be wrong to simply blame
Republicans for this.
Now, historically, Republicans have been worse on this issue than Democrats have.
But the only reason why red states are able to do this redetermination process is
because Democrats in the federal government have given them
the green light.
So there was a bipartisan deal late last year where Congress agreed to
essentially cut off the pandemic protections, giving states twelve
months to redefine who is and is not eligible for the health care program.
And that health care program, Medicaid,
covers tens of millions of Americans across the country.
Now, as the very states that refuse to expand their Medicaid programs through
the Affordable Care Act begin to push low income Americans off the health coverage
they've come to rely on, enrollees are absolutely left in the dark.
For instance, there's a Kaiser Family Foundation poll that asked an important
question about this issue.
Just under three in ten, 28% of Medicaid enrollees overall
are aware states are now allowed to remove people from Medicaid.
And as a result, according to the New York Times,
early data does in fact show that people lost coverage for
procedural reasons, such as when Medicaid recipients did not return
paperwork to verify their eligibility or could not be located.
The large number of terminations on procedural grounds suggest that many
people may be losing their coverage even though they are still qualified for it.
Many of those who have been dropped have been children.
I'm gonna give you some of those stories, specific examples in just a moment.
But let's just fantasize for a moment what it would be like to live
in a country like Canada or a country or a place like the UK.
Where they have nationalized medicine, where they have a single payer
healthcare system, where every single person gets the health care that
they need without this weird privatized, fragmented system, right?
You've got some public health insurance that's really,
really difficult to qualify for.
I mean, you need to be incredibly poor to qualify for it.
Then you have the privatized model, which price gouges you.
You have the prescription drugs that we also get price gouged on.
Just imagine living in a country that has a single payer system like Medicare for
All, where you don't have to deal with all this heartache and all this pain.
But I do want to give you some more details in regard to what we're already
seeing in regard to people losing their health coverage through Medicaid.
So in Arkansas, for instance, more than 1.1 million people, that's
over a third of the state's residents were on Medicaid at the end of March.
In April, though, the first month that states could begin removing
people from the program, about 73,000 people lost coverage,
including, get a load of this, 27,000 kids.
I mean, F them, right?
Republicans care so much about the children that they will force
them off of Medicaid, which they might need to keep them healthy.
You might be thinking, well, they're kids.
Kids are healthy.
They're spry.
They don't need Medicaid, do they?
Except some absolutely do.
So, I should note the majority of people who were dropped in the state
lost coverage due to procedural reasons, okay?
The barrier of entry, the barrier to do what you need to do and
file the necessary paperwork in order to qualify for Medicaid.
Then there are issues regarding how poor you need to be.
Among those who were dropped was Melissa Buford,
a diabetic with high blood pressure who makes about $35,000 a year at a health
clinic in eastern Arkansas helping families find affordable health insurance.
Her two adult sons also lost their coverage because guess what?
Apparently $35,000 a year as a single mother who has children
to feed is just too much money.
She's living the good life.
$35,000 a year, single mother to two sons.
Let's go to Florida, though, where you'll hear the terrible example of a seven
year old who desperately needs health care coverage but will now be denied.
Early data released from the state of Florida, for example,
shows that more than 205,000 people in the state lost coverage for procedural
reasons after April eligibility checks, and there was a seven year old involved.
So, one of these individuals is a seven year old boy in remission from leukemia
who is now unable to access follow up and potentially life saving treatments.
And that's according to a letter that was written by
advocacy groups who are urging DeSantis to change course on this.
The group also wrote that families with children have been erroneously
terminated and parents are having trouble reaching the DCF call center for
help with this process.
Additionally, unclear notices and
lack of information on how to appeal contribute to more confusion.
But that's not the bug, that's the feature.
In fact, I remember when the coronavirus pandemic first started, when tens of
millions of Americans had lost their jobs through no fault of their own.
Florida was a difficult state to get qualified for
unemployment benefits, even if you absolutely do qualify for it,.
And it's because they didn't really heavily invest in the infrastructure,
the state infrastructure necessary to process the claims.
So while people living in states like California applied and
were able to qualify for unemployment benefits almost immediately, in Florida,
that wasn't the case.
Some people, in some cases had to wait months for it.
So again,
I just wanna emphasize that isn't the bug that is the feature in some of these
red states who really lean into the pull yourself up by the bootstraps mentality.
And in the end, millions of Americans absolutely will be affected by this.
The Congressional Budget Office, for instance,
estimated earlier this week that states Medicaid eligibility checks will
likely leave 6.2 million people without any insurance at all.
America, land of the free, home of the brave,
place where even as a seven year old child who is dealing with leukemia,
you might not get the coverage you need.
And it's just so shameless.
Republicans are so incredibly shameless about this.
And by the way, I don't really hear a peep from Democrats either.