More than 100,000 people have been kicked out of Idaho’s Medicaid program so far after pandemic protections ended earlier this year.
About 154,000 people were enrolled under Idaho’s Medicaid expansion during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Federal law prevented states from purging enrollees, even if they didn’t qualify, until this past spring so they would have insurance during the public health emergency.
Division of Welfare Administrator Shane Leach told the state Board of Health and Welfare Thursday over 100,000 of those people have been found ineligible – the majority of which didn’t respond to state officials.
“Starting in April, we send the initial notice, we send one 60 days out, we send one at 30 days, we send a reminder and even send a text and still have not heard from those individuals,” Leach said.
“Only about 30,000 have followed through and have been determined eligible, so about 23% of that Medicaid protected population has remained eligible".
Board member Dan Schmidt, a former Democratic state senator and physician, asked if the department tracked whether these ineligible people found insurance coverage elsewhere.
Leach said no, but mentioned his division forwarded information to them about Idaho’s health exchange where they might be eligible for a federal credit to offset the cost.
State officials still have about 20,000 enrollees left to process.
Follow James Dawson on Twitter @RadioDawson for more local news.
Copyright 2023 Boise State Public Radio
