(The Center Square) – Registration for Medicaid in Louisiana dropped 18.5% from about 2.1 million to 1.7 million over the last 12 months, according to a recent report.
More than two-thirds of nonrenewals were terminated for procedural reasons, meaning registration forms incorrectly completed or not completed. Across the United States, about 1 in 3 Medicaid enrollees never completed the renewal process.
Medicaid is health insurance program for low-income and people in need is paid with county, state and federal tax dollars. The demographics include children, elderly, blind and the disabled. Also covered are people eligible to receive federal assisted income maintenance payments.
The numbers are monitored by KFF, an independent nonprofit research , polling and journalism entity, monitors the unwinding of eligibility redeterminations associated with federal Medicaid rules and funding from the COVID-19 era. The continuous enrollment provision expired April 1, 2023; the subsequent time is colloquially called unwinding.
According to a KFF, nearly a quarter of those dropped from medicaid nationally are currently uninsured. About 47% of individuals dropped nationally during the unwinding period reenrolled; this is accounted for in the state number of enrollments.
The Foundation for Government Accountability, an organization "looking to trade in government checks for paychecks," says Louisiana is in desperate need of a medicaid reduction.
"Louisiana is one of those states that should say, 'Hey, do we really want to offer this Medicaid expansion to a quarter million able-bodied adults?'," FGA Policy Director Sam Adolphsen told The Center Square on Tuesday.
Adolphsen was referring to Louisiana being one of three states that expanded Medicaid under Obamacare. The able-bodied qualify. An individual is not allowed to receive a private insurance plan if they're eligible for the expanded Medicaid.
Adolphsen's group says 98% of low-income adults in America already have access to health plans with no out-of-pocket premium and no deductible, so kicking those individuals off private insurance bursts already tight budgets.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services conducted a survey that found Louisiana's hospital shortfalls in 2021 more than doubled the shortfalls before expansion. A shortfall is the difference between hospital payments from Medicaid and the cost of providing services to enrollees.
Adolphsen says this is because Medicaid is a "poor payer" in the health care system.
Although the number of people on Medicaid has dropped during the unwinding period, Adolphsen says the real baseline for Louisiana is closer to 1.5 million, so the goal should be to get back to numbers before COVID-19.
"They're pegging that off of a high during COVID, which is an artificial high," Adolphsen said.
He believes Gov. Jeff Landry could help lower that number.
"I think Louisiana is going to get back to what the right number is, because your current governor has a commitment to preserving resources for those truly needy individuals," Adolphsen said. "He's on the record about that, he's been great on welfare fraud. He's got a good leadership team in place, so I believe they're going to do a good job at getting the program where it needs to be."
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