More Than 360,000 Wisconsin Residents Lost Medicaid Coverage After Restart of Income Checks and Recertification

Friday, June 7th, 2024 -- 11:01 AM

More than 360,000 in Wisconsin lost Medicaid coverage during unwinding, the restart of income checks and other recertification after a three-year pause.

That’s according to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services data. Medicaid provides health insurance to low-income households. In Wisconsin, that includes programs like BadgerCare Plus, which serves children, pregnant people and non-disabled adults and long-term care programs for people with disabilities and seniors.

The federal government requires states each year to verify Medicaid recipients’ eligibility, but it paused the mandate early in the pandemic to help people maintain coverage. Verification resumed in June 2023 in Wisconsin.

As of this month, all Wisconsin Medicaid recipients should have submitted their first renewal application during the restart.  The results so far: About 30 percent of those up for renewal were disenrolled.

About 37 percent in that group no longer met income or health requirements, some, like Teresa, just narrowly. Most lost coverage due to procedural issues such as missing or incorrectly filled out paperwork, data show.

Wisconsin’s Medicaid population has shrunk 18 percent during unwinding, the 13th sharpest percentage decline among states, according to an analysis by the health policy research firm KFF.

Wisconsin took advantage of relatively few strategies suggested by the federal government to keep more people enrolled, making adjustments only after more than 560,000 renewal deadlines passed.

The Legislature’s Republican-controlled budget writing committee in 2023 rejected a proposal by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers to lift the income threshold for Medicaid, funded mostly with federal pandemic relief. Just nine additional states have refused federal incentives to expand access.

Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.