Shawdesh Desk:

Millions of New Yorkers have been removed from their Medicaid coverage after the federal government ended its continuous coverage policy during the pandemic.

According to a Kaiser Family Foundation report, 1.4 million New Yorkers were taken off Medicaid coverage as the government required recipients to reapply for coverage this year. Of those who were on Medicaid previously, 3.3 million were reapproved.

This follows a national trend as states grapple with renewing Medicaid coverage since the government stopped offering continuous coverage through the pandemic. Nationally, at least 19.6 million Medicaid enrollees were taken off their policies. That’s roughly 30 percent of enrollees since the Medicaid cutting process began.

Many of those who lost their coverage did so because of procedural reasons, with the KFF reporting that 69 percent nationally saw their coverage end because of a missed form deadline or incorrect address.

In New York specifically, this accounted for 45 percent of recipients who were de-enrolled.

While New York had a high number of people lose coverage, states across the country differed in the exact reasons people stopped receiving Medicaid.

While some Southern states like Texas and Florida have stopped Medicaid expansion and made it more challenging to get approved, New York’s dropping numbers may merely reflect that a high number of people live in the state and are subsequently on Medicaid.

“Since their Medicaid populations are so large, it makes sense that they also have the highest number of disenrollments during the unwinding period,” Louise Norris, health policy analyst for healthinsurance.org, told Newsweek. “The number of eligibility redeterminations they’re processing each month is higher than some states’ total Medicaid enrollment.”

New York also boasts one of the highest limits for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIPS), at up to 400 percent of the poverty level. CHIPS is a state and federally-run program that offers health insurance to children from families with incomes too high to earn Medicaid but too low for private coverage.

The state also expanded its Basic Health Program to cover adults with income up to 250 percent of the poverty level, which is considerably higher than many other states. That means those who end up not qualifying for Medicaid this year could likely find other coverage through that plan, Norris said.

Texas, meanwhile, has purposefully starved off its Medicaid coverage through specific Medicaid coverage policies, Chris Fong, the CEO of Smile Insurance, said.

“It is our belief that a large portion of them qualified through the temporary COVID Medicaid expansion and now don’t qualify,” Fong told Newsweek, adding that reinstatement will be more difficult in Texas compared to other states.

For those who do find themselves without Medicaid, the news can be a shock.

“Many people during Covid lost their jobs and relied heavily on the Medicaid system to provide health insurance but as they started working again the Covid Medicaid protection allowed them to stay on Medicaid,” Fong said.

For those who do find themselves in this situation, Fong encourages them to act immediately.

“They usually only find out that they have lost Medicaid when they try going to the doctor and they are told they have no insurance,” Fong said. “The best advice we can give is if someone finds themselves in the position where they have lost Medicaid is to immediately contact their state Medicaid agency, find out the reasons for the loss, and reapply if they still qualify.”