More than 23 million Americans who were granted Medicaid coverage during the COVID-19 pandemic lost their coverage starting in March 2023 after the pandemic was declared no longer a public health emergency. Many likely will not successfully re-enroll on their own given Medicaid’s administrative burden—the frustrations and challenges people often encounter in seeking or complying with coverage.
Now, a study of the so-called Medicaid Great Unwinding by Dr. Simon F. Haeder with the Texas A&M University School of Public Health, and a colleague from the University of Michigan, assessed how tolerant Americans are of administrative burdens in the wake of such a major policy event.
“One effort to address the pandemic pushed states to make enrolling in Medicaid much easier, which caused enrollment to surge to unprecedented levels — even more than introduction of the Affordable Care Act marketplaces,” Haeder said. “And while we know a great deal about public support of these policies, we knew very little prior to this about support of the administrative processes that can be difficult but that are often central to a policy’s success.”
Source: Study Finds Americans Want Pandemic-Era Ease Of Applying For Medicaid / Texas A&M Today