Call for HHS Secretary Becerra To Protect Medicaid Coverage During “Unwinding”

On April 1, 2023, all states will resume reviewing Medicaid enrollees’ eligibility — a process often called “unwinding.” People of color and children are most vulnerable to losing coverage.

 By News Desk

Congress passed legislation at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic to protect access to Medicaid. It ensured that no one could be disenrolled during the public health emergency. This provision, which helped secure the highest level of insured Americans ever, is set to expire on April 1, resulting in an estimated 15 million people losing coverage – disproportionately impacting people of color and children.

On Monday, March 20, the Congressional Tri-Caucus:

• Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC),
• Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), and the
• Congressional Black Caucus (CBC),

led more than 60 of their colleagues in a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra. They asked him to preserve Medicaid coverage and protect access to healthcare. “Secretary Becerra must use his new enforcement authority to protect health care access for all struggling families and enrolled children, including those belonging to AANHPI communities.”

The lawmakers are calling for state and federal action to keep families in America covered as Medicaid’s continuous coverage requirement ends. They ask for Secretary Becerra to clearly define and enforce states’ legal obligations to prevent rampant, paperwork-driven terminations.

“I am gravely concerned that when states resume the ‘unwinding’ of the Medicaid continuous coverage requirement in April, millions of low-income beneficiaries, including Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (AANHPIs) and other communities of color, will unnecessarily lose essential health insurance,” said CAPAC Chair Judy Chu (CA-28).

“Millions of Latinos were able to access life-saving health insurance coverage as a result of the Medicaid continuous coverage requirement and these historic gains must not be erased when states resume Medicaid unwinding,” said CHC Chair Nanette Barragán (CA-44).

“We cannot afford to roll back the hard-fought progress we have made on Medicaid, which has helped to narrow racial disparities in health coverage and provide much needed access to life-saving care in communities of color. If Medicaid terminations resume, more than 2 million Black Americans nationwide will lose access to life-saving health care despite their eligibility,” said CBC Chair Steven Horsford (NV-04).

“Providing Medicaid coverage for millions of our nation’s struggling families during the COVID-19 pandemic saved countless lives. As we approach the Medicaid redetermination period, we must continue to work together to protect our most vulnerable Americans, including the 2.2 million Black Americans at risk of losing their Medicaid coverage,” said Rep. Federica S. Wilson (FL-24).

The Biden-Harris Administration previously has demonstrated its commitment to expanding access to care and providing guidance to states to assess eligibility in a way that will minimize coverage losses, particularly for children, people of color, people with disabilities, and others who rely on the Medicaid program for their health care.

According to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, 2023 unwinding is expected to come with stark racial inequities. Roughly 17 percent of white enrollees estimated to lose Medicaid coverage are predicted to lose it through administrative churning despite still being eligible for Medicaid. However, the rates are much higher among people of color: 64% of Latinos enrolled, over half of Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander enrollees, 47% of Black enrollees, and nearly half of multiracial and other non-white enrollees could lose Medicaid coverage even though they would still be eligible.

Others who urged that everyone who is eligible for Medicaid stay covered included Leslie Dach, chair of Protect Our Care; Janet Murguía, President and CEO of UnidosUS; Juliet K. Choi, President & CEO of the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum (APIAHF), and Marc H. Morial, President and CEO of the National Urban League, who added, “We thank the leadership and members of the Tri Caucus for engaging on this vital civil rights issue.”