Did you know that between May 2023 and January, more than 131,000 Colorado children lost health insurance, many due to bureaucratic red tape and administrative errors? was. This equates to every child in Denver County becoming uninsured within one year.
Throughout the pandemic, the federal government has made it easier for people to obtain and maintain Medicaid coverage. But as the public health emergency declared early in the pandemic ends and these protections are lifted (public health officials refer to this process as “easing”), alarming Thousands of people are losing health insurance. . Most of them are children.
Access to health insurance is important for everyone, but it's especially important for children. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends 15 visits by the time a child turns 6 years old. This does not include care for other illnesses or injuries that occur during childhood. Medical insurance helps families get the care they need. Colorado Children's Campaign believes all children and families in our state should have access to affordable, quality health care coverage.
But across the state, children who are still eligible for Medicaid have been losing coverage in recent months at a pace never seen before. Families may receive confusing letters, wait hours on the phone, or attend routine doctor's appointments before finally realizing they've accidentally lost their health insurance.
Without Medicaid, many of these children's families would not be able to pay for the medical services they need. They may delay needed medical care, struggle to pay for prescriptions, or incur significant medical debt due to costly emergency treatments that could be avoided with continued hospital visits and affordable medications. there is.
Colorado has taken steps to address the issue, including automatically renewing insurance for people with no income and giving them more time to re-enroll. In April, the state will begin automatic re-enrollment of people with incomes below 100% of the poverty line.
While we applaud the efforts of state leaders to date to address this issue, Colorado can and should do more to protect our children.
The historic loss of health insurance for children has exposed long-standing problems that create red tape for the families that public insurance programs are intended to serve. We need a simple system for determining who is eligible for public health insurance, and we need to work harder to keep eligible children enrolled.
Our state's Medicaid department must:
— Delay redetermination of eligibility for all children, allowing them to continue receiving coverage until the state can guarantee that they will not be disenrolled for procedural reasons. North Carolina and Kentucky have already taken this step.
— Work more closely with local accountability organizations that oversee the coordination of care for Medicaid members in specific regions of the state, as well as with pharmacies and community-based organizations to provide more flexibility in helping enrollees complete the renewal process. do. These are all flexibilities the federal government has granted states to help stem this crisis.
— Publish disaggregated data showing who in the state is losing insurance coverage on a monthly basis. This helps us understand which groups and communities are most affected and target resources accordingly.
At the same time, Colorado will require state Medicaid agencies to provide continuous coverage for all children enrolled in Medicaid or Child Health Plan Plus from birth to age 3 by 2026. We must work to successfully implement House Bill 1300, the 2023 law that requires this. This policy helps families with infants and young children avoid a complicated renewal process. We need to do this in a timely manner because this relief shows on a large scale that the process of renewing Medicaid coverage is not working well for children and families.
We call on state leaders to recognize the gravity of the situation and immediately take additional steps to protect coverage for children and families. Their health depends on it.
Hunter Nelson lives in Denver and is a senior policy analyst at the Colorado Children's Campaign. She focuses on child and family health policy, including health insurance, maternal health, reproductive health, food security, and gun violence prevention.
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