Activists ask again for reinstatement of Arkansas Medicaid benefits lost in 2023 ‘unwinding’

Medicaid recipients and advocates speak to reporters at a protest held by Arkansas Community Organizations on Wednesday, May 29, 2024 in front of the Arkansas Department of Human Services office in Little Rock. (Tess Vrbin/Arkansas Advocate)

Arkansas Medicaid recipients held the latest of several protests in front of the state Department of Human Services headquarters Wednesday, asking the agency again for broader health care coverage and the reinstatement of those who were disenrolled last year but still eligible.

DHS spent six months in 2023 reviewing the eligibility of Medicaid recipients whose coverage was extended for three years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, even if they no longer qualified for benefits because of income or other eligibility limits.

More than 184,500 of the roughly 420,000 Arkansans who retained coverage during the extension were disenrolled between April 1 and Sept. 30 because they did not provide necessary eligibility information, according to DHS data.

Arkansas Community Organizations, the group behind the protests, has repeatedly claimed DHS did not do enough to ensure people were ineligible before cutting their Medicaid coverage. Medicaid clients have also said DHS takes too long to process applications for benefits and respond to people’s questions and concerns.

Most states had a full year to conduct the “unwinding” of the coverage extension, but Arkansas had six months, as required by a 2021 state law . Medicaid recipients asked for a one-year grace period, to no avail, in a March 2023 protest .

1 in 5 Arkansas children lost Medicaid during ‘unwinding’ process, report finds

DHS Secretary Kristi Putnam met with Arkansas Community Organizations in February 2023 to listen to their concerns. On Wednesday, the group said in an open letter, signed by more than 40 people, that they hope to have another meeting with her since many of their needs remain unmet.

“Admittedly, we gave them lengthy demands, but they’re a huge institution, so it shouldn’t be that hard to meet our demands,” organizer Al Allen said.

Nationwide, Arkansas had the tenth-largest decrease in the number of children enrolled in Medicaid at the end of 2023 than before the pandemic began in 2020, according to a Georgetown University report released this month. Nine states had at least 100,000 fewer kids enrolled in Medicaid in December 2023 compared to March 2020; Arkansas saw a decrease of 94,002, a 21% drop, which was the eighth-largest percentage decrease nationwide, according to the report.

Wednesday’s protesters held signs shaped like pie charts with 21% cut out and slogans including “the less pie, the more people die” and “giving the whole should be your goal.”

The group chanted, “If this was you, what would you do?” and “DHS, do us right, don’t make healthcare such a fight.”

DHS communications chief Gavin Lesnick told reporters that he and other agency staff have been working with Arkansas Community Organizations to re-enroll eligible people who have lost Medicaid coverage.

“If there are issues [with re-enrollment], we want to know about that, we want to follow up and determine if there’s something that needs to be fixed or adjusted,” Lesnick said.

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