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Missourians trying to enroll in or retain Medicaid — the government-run health insurance program for low-income Americans — are running headlong into the state’s increasingly-strained system. The result: lost and missing paperwork, indecipherable state notices and marathon call center wait times.
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"It’s more like gambling than it is health care," said one woman about infertility treatments, "because you’re wagering significant amounts of money... and you might come out with nothing."
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Beginning in the new year, patients 18 and under who enroll in Missouri's insurance programs for low-income people will not be removed for 12 months. Missouri was one of the few U.S. states that did not offer guaranteed yearlong coverage.
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Kids made up almost half of Missouri residents disenrolled from Medicaid since renewals resumed this year, even though children are eligible for coverage at higher levels than adults. And paperwork issues are the main reason most Missourians are dropped — not lack of eligibility.
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States were banned from removing people from Medicaid during the COVID-19 public health emergency unless a person moved, died or asked to be taken off. Now that the pandemic has been declared over, Missouri and Kansas have resumed checking eligibility — and the process has not been going well.
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Kansans unnecessarily lost Medicaid eligibility because of confusion over signatures, slow mail delivery and a lack of clear communication from the state. Some 12,000 adults or children eligible for the health coverage program were stripped of benefits due to processing issues.
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Missouri’s share of children being disenrolled from Medicaid is third-highest among the states that report age breakouts. Nearly 40,000 kids total lost coverage — mostly for paperwork reasons — and it's not yet clear how many were able to cycle back or move to another program.
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Low-income people who are disabled or over 65 — or both — qualify for both Medicare and Medicaid. In 2022, that included 203,000 people in Missouri and 75,000 in Kansas. A bipartisan group of lawmakers agree: the two insurance programs are failing the country's most vulnerable patients.
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Eloise Reynolds, a resident of Olivette, Missouri, encountered a perplexing reality in medical billing: Providers can come after patients for more money well after a bill has been paid.
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Eloise Reynolds, a resident of Olivette, Missouri, encountered a perplexing reality in medical billing: Providers can come after patients for more money well after a bill has been paid.
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Diabetic people in Kansas 3rd Congressional District are projected to have saved an average of $620 on insulin in the first year since the federal government approved a new law.
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June was the first month of eligibility reviews for Missouri's roughly 1.5 million Medicaid enrollees. Children accounted for half of all the state's Medicaid terminations, mostly for procedural reasons.