The suspension was a very big social act. Timothy Faust, a single-payer advocate who helps people enroll in Medicaid, tweeted that reopening was a crime.
Advocates, policy experts, and lawmakers are increasingly outraged as data and anecdotes emerge from states across the US
Hundreds of thousands of people, including children and the elderly, have been barred from Medicaid for failing to submit paperwork on time or for other bureaucratic reasons. At least 1.5 million people in about 24 states have been disqualified for Medicaid since April, according to state statistics obtained by The Associated Press. Complicating the process is that some states have not provided Medicaid registrants with adequate notice of the steps they must follow to resume eligibility and maintain coverage. Verification of eligibility requires documentation and other requirements that are often confusing and difficult to understand.
Republican-led Florida has barred nearly 250,000 people from Medicaid since March
Local media outlets in Florida and elsewhere have circulated reports of people who have been cut off from coverage by bureaucracy, including an 87-year-old woman who relies on the program for home care and a 7-year-old child with leukemia. Some report health insurance has been staggered due to government mistakes, as understaffed states’ Medicaid systems work to reassess the eligibility of millions of residents.