Medicaid — the state-federal medical insurance program for low-income and disabled Individuals — has lower greater than 22 million recipients since spring 2023.
Certainly one of them was the son of Ashley Eades. Her household misplaced their Medicaid protection within the “unwinding” of protections that had barred states from dropping individuals for years throughout the covid pandemic.
Many households, together with Ashley’s, nonetheless qualify for Medicaid however misplaced it for “procedural causes.” Principally, lacking paperwork.
The unwinding course of has been messy.
On this episode, host Dan Weissmann talks with Ashley in regards to the months she spent preventing to get her son reenrolled in 2023 to get an on-the-ground take a look at how the unwinding is affecting households.
Then, Dan hears from employees on the Tennessee Justice Center, Joan Alker of Georgetown College’s Heart for Youngsters and Households, and KFF Well being Information correspondent Brett Kelman, who has been overlaying Medicaid in Tennessee for years.
Dan Weissmann
Host and producer of “An Arm and a Leg.” Beforehand, Dan was a employees reporter for Market and Chicago’s WBEZ. His work additionally seems on All Issues Thought of, Market, the BBC, 99 % Invisible, and Reveal, from the Heart for Investigative Reporting.
Credit
Emily Pisacreta
Producer
Adam Raymonda
Audio wizard
Ellen Weiss
Editor
Click on to open the Transcript
‘An Arm and a Leg’: Medicaid Recipients Battle To Keep Enrolled
Observe: “An Arm and a Leg” makes use of speech-recognition software program to generate transcripts, which can comprise errors. Please use the transcript as a software however examine the corresponding audio earlier than quoting the podcast.
Dan: Hey there. You realize what we have now NEVER talked about on this present? Medicaid. The large, federally-funded medical insurance program for people with decrease incomes. And I didn’t notice: That’s been an enormous omission. As a result of it seems, Medicaid covers a TON of individuals. Like a couple of quarter of all Individuals. And about forty % of all youngsters. That’s 4 out of each ten youngsters on this nation who’re insured by Medicaid.
And that is the right time to have a look at Medicaid as a result of– nicely: tens of thousands and thousands of persons are dropping their Medicaid protection proper now. It looks like a whole lot of these individuals? Properly, a whole lot of them may very well nonetheless qualify for Medicaid.
That is all sort of a “Again to the Future” second, which began when COVID hit: The feds basically hit pause on a factor that used to occur yearly– requiring individuals on Medicaid to re-enroll, to re-establish whether or not they have been eligible. And again then, tons of individuals acquired dropped yearly, though a whole lot of them most likely nonetheless certified.
The pause lasted by the COVID “public well being emergency,” which led to spring 2023. Since then, states have been un-pausing: Doing years and years of re-enrollments– and un-enrollments– unexpectedly. Folks name it the “unwinding.” And it’s been messy. And, one other factor I’ve been studying: Medicaid operates actually in another way from one state to a different. It even has totally different names. In California, it’s referred to as Medi-Cal. In Wisconsin, it’s BadgerCare. And this unwinding can look utterly totally different from one state to the subsequent.
We’re gonna look largely at one state– Tennessee, the place this system known as TennCare. And in some methods, in accordance with the numbers on the unwinding, TennCare is… kinda common.
However the issues some individuals have had, attempting to maintain from getting kicked off TennCare? Earlier than this unwinding and through it? They sound fairly unhealthy. We’re gonna hear from a kind of individuals– a mother named Ashley Eades.
Ashley Eades: Yeah. TennCare. Put me by the wringer, I let you know what.
Dan: We’ll hear how Ashley spent months preventing to maintain her son Lucas from getting kicked off TennCare. And we’ll hear from some of us who may help us put her story in perspective. Together with of us who helped Ashley finally win her struggle. Of us who’re preventing– in Tennessee and across the nation– to maintain packages like TennCare from placing individuals like Ashley by the wringer.
That is An Arm and a Leg– a present about why well being care prices so freaking a lot, and what we are able to perhaps do about it. I’m Dan Weissmann. I’m a reporter, and I like a problem. So the job we’ve chosen round right here is to take one of the crucial enraging, terrifying, miserable components of American life, and to convey you a present that’s entertaining, empowering, and helpful. Ashley Eades is a single mother in Nashville. She works within the kitchen at Pink’s Sizzling Hen, close to Vanderbilt College.
Ashley Eades: We’re similar to each different particular person in Nashville attempting to say they acquired the very best sizzling rooster.
Dan: Ashley buys her insurance coverage from the Obamacare market, however her son Lucas– he’s 12 — is on TennCare. In April 2023, Ashley acquired a discover from TennCare saying, “It’s time to resume your protection!” That means Lucas’s protection. That means, welcome to the unwinding! After I speak with Ashley, she makes use of one phrase a couple of half-dozen instances:
Ashley Eades: it simply was a nightmare. It was a nightmare. In order that was the nightmare. A horrible nightmare you possibly can’t get up from. Oh my god, that was a nightmare.
Dan: So: After Ashley crammed out the renewal packet, she acquired one other discover, saying “We want extra data from you.” TennCare wished proof of “unearned revenue”– like financial institution statements, or a letter saying she was entitled to one thing like staff compensation– or a court-ordered fee. However Ashley didn’t have any unearned revenue. Lucas’s dad was imagined to pay little one help, however– as Ashley later wrote to state officers– he didn’t have common employment so couldn’t pay.
Ashley says she referred to as TennCare for recommendation and acquired instructed, “By no means thoughts. There’s nothing to ship, so that you don’t should ship us something.” Which turned out to be unsuitable. A number of weeks later, in Might, TennCare despatched Ashley a letter saying “Why your protection is ending.”
It gave two causes: First, it stated “We despatched you a letter asking for extra details… however you didn’t ship us what we wanted.” It additionally stated “We’ve discovered that you’ve different insurance coverage” for Lucas. However she didn’t. And never having insurance coverage for Lucas was going to be a direct drawback. He acquired identified with epilepsy a couple of years in the past, and he wanted ongoing therapy.
Ashley Eades: he was on three totally different medicines. I imply, that alone would value me about $1,500 a month with no medical insurance. And that is anti-seizure treatment. Like we are able to’t simply cease it
Dan: Yeah. Ashley says she did all the pieces she might consider: mailed in paper kinds, submitted data on-line, and made a whole lot of telephone calls.
Ashley Eades: like forwards and backwards on the telephone with individuals I don’t even know who Italked to, simply dozens and dozens of individuals I talked to. And each single time it was undergo the identical story again and again and over and over and over and simply get transferred Placed on holds, you realize disconnected yelled at, instructed I’m unsuitable like
Dan: It went on for months. She reapplied. She was accepted. Then she was un-approved. She appealed. The attraction was denied. Then, in July, the complete nightmare: Lucas ended up within the emergency room after a seizure. Whereas he was formally uninsured.
Ashley Eades: I simply didn’t know what to do. Like, I used to be shutting down mentally.
Dan: After which, out of nowhere, a relative talked about {that a} nonprofit referred to as the Tennessee Justice Heart had helped *her* out with a TennCare software. Ashley referred to as the group instantly.
Ashley Eades: and I’m not a non secular particular person, however they have been like a fudging godsend. You realize what I imply? Like, it was superb
Dan: A consumer advocate named Luke Mukundan checked out all of TennCare’s letters to Ashley and confirmed one factor instantly: Ashley wasn’t unsuitable to be confused.
Ashley Eades: He’s like going by all of those letters and he’s like, it doesn’t even make sense
Dan: Later I talked with Luke, on sort of a awful Zoom connection. However he stated to me: This was complicated, even to him.
Luke Mukundan: she was offering the data that they requested for, um,
Dan: However they saved asking the identical questions. They usually saved saying that her son had another insurance coverage.
Luke Mukundan: once I knew and he or she knew that wasn’t the case
Dan: Luke’s boss on the Tennessee Justice Heart, Diana Gallaher, instructed me she wasn’t stunned that Ashley acquired confused by that early query about un-earned revenue. She says the method might be actually complicated.
Diana Gallaher: Heck, I get confused. I nonetheless, I’ll take a look at a query and say, you realize, wait, what are they asking? How do I reply this one?
Dan: And also you’ve been doing this for some time, proper?
Diana Gallaher: Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Dan: How lengthy have you ever been doing this?
Diana Gallaher: Since 2003, 2004.
Dan: Greater than twenty years. After all, Ashley’s been going by this course of at an particularly tough time: The unwinding. When so many individuals have been going by this course of directly.
For example, Luke and Diana say the assistance strains at TennCare have been super-jammed– like, it wasn’t uncommon to spend 45 minutes or an hour on maintain.
By the point Ashley discovered the Tennessee Justice Heart, it was August. She’d been preventing alone for months. Luke helped Ashley with a brand new attraction. And on September 22, TennCare despatched Ashley an replace. Her son is accepted. “You qualify for a similar protection you had earlier than,” it says. “And also you’ll haven’t any break in protection.”
So Ashley’s “nightmare” was one particular person’s expertise of the unwinding. But it surely’s not a one-off: In keeping with reviews from KFF and Georgetown College, greater than two-thirds of the individuals who misplaced Medicaid within the final 12 months have been disenrolled, like Ashley, for what are referred to as “procedural causes.” Lacking paperwork.
Now, a few of these individuals who acquired dropped for “procedural causes” most likely didn’t even attempt to renew Medicaid as a result of they didn’t want it anymore. They’d new jobs that got here with insurance coverage.
However we all know these of us are in a minority. Researchers at KFF– the father or mother group of our journalist buddies at KFF Well being Information– did a survey of oldsters who acquired dropped from Medicaid. Most of them– seventy %– ended up both uninsured or, the largest group, again on Medicaid. And once more, greater than two-thirds of the oldsters who acquired dropped have been lower for “procedural causes”– paperwork. Like Ashley’s son Lucas.
So, when lots of people can’t renew their Medicaid for “procedural” causes, it appears value taking a look at that process. And what’s occurring within the unwinding isn’t truly a brand new phenomenon. It’s simply un-pausing an previous process– a system that at all times had these issues. And that’s actually clear in Tennessee, as a result of individuals in Tennessee have been documenting– and preventing– these issues for a very long time.
Subsequent up: Taking TennCare to courtroom.
This episode of An Arm and a Leg is a co-production of Public Highway Productions and KFF Well being Information. The parents at KFF well being information are superb journalists– and in reality, we’re about to listen to from one in all them, proper now.
Brett Kelman: My identify is Brett Kelman.
Dan: Brett’s an enterprise correspondent with KFF Well being Information
Brett Kelman: And I report from town of Nashville, the place I’ve lived for about seven years.
Dan: Brett got here to Nashville initially to cowl well being look after the native day by day, the Tennessean. Which meant he heard about Medicaid– about individuals dropping medicaid– quite a bit.
Brett Kelman: You hear two variations of the identical story. You hear sufferers who get to the physician’s workplace and abruptly uncover they don’t have Medicaid once they used to, they usually thought they nonetheless did. And then you definately hear the opposite aspect of that coin. You hear docs, notably a whole lot of pediatricians, the place their sufferers get to their workplace after which uncover of their ready rooms they don’t have Medicaid.
Dan: And by the best way– you seen how Brett stated he heard particularly from pediatricians about this subject in Tennessee. That’s as a result of Tennessee is without doubt one of the states that by no means expanded Medicaid after the Reasonably priced Care Act took impact. In these states, Medicaid nonetheless covers a whole lot of youngsters however quite a bit fewer adults than different states. Docs treating sufferers with Medicaid– a whole lot of them are gonna be pediatricians.
So, Brett’s listening to all of this seven years in the past– the before-time. Earlier than the unwinding. Earlier than COVID. Folks saved dropping Medicaid and never figuring out about it till they acquired to the physician’s workplace. And Brett wished to know: how did that occur? He and a colleague ended up doing an enormous investigation. And got here again with a transparent discovering:
Brett Kelman: More often than not, when individuals lose their Medicaid in Tennessee, it isn’t as a result of the state checked out their funds and decided they aren’t certified. Paperwork issues are the first motive that folks lose Medicaid protection in Tennessee.
Dan: Brett and his reporting accomplice used a public-records request to get a database with the shape letters despatched to about 300 thousand individuals who wanted to resume their Medicaid protection.
Brett Kelman: And what we decided was that, you realize, 200,000 plus youngsters, had been despatched a kind letter saying that they have been going to lose their Medicaid in Tennessee, once more, not as a result of the state decided they have been ineligible, however as a result of they couldn’t inform.
Dan: About two thirds of individuals in that database acquired kicked off Medicaid for “procedural causes”– paperwork points. That is years earlier than the present “unwinding” however that two-thirds quantity, it’s fairly much like what we’re seeing at present.
Brett Kelman: And, you realize, that raises a whole lot of questions on if we’re doing the system accurately, as a result of do we actually wish to take well being care away from a household who’s low revenue? As a result of someone tousled a kind or a kind acquired misplaced within the mail.
Dan: Across the time Brett revealed that story in 2019, the Lester household discovered that they’d misplaced their Medicaid– as a result of a kind had gotten misplaced within the mail. It took them three years to get it again. Brett met them on the finish of that journey
Brett Kelman: they have been a rural Tennessee household, a few rambunctious boys who appeared to injure themselves continually. And truthfully, I noticed him virtually get harm whereas I used to be there doing the interview. One of many younger boys had. Climbed as much as the highest of a cat tower. And I consider jumped off as I used to be interviewing his dad and mom and I might see the insurance coverage, I might see the medical claims racking up earlier than my eyes.
Dan: In 2019, one of many boys had damaged his wrist leaping off the entrance porch. And when the Lesters took him to the physician, that’s once they discovered they’d been lower from Medicaid. Over the subsequent three years, they racked up greater than 100 thousand {dollars} in medical debt– coping with COVID, with extra accidents, with the beginning of one other little one. Lastly, the Tennessee Justice Heart helped them get Medicaid again– and determine what had gone unsuitable.
Brett Kelman: And when all of it got here right down to it, we ultimately decided that this paperwork that their medical insurance hinged on, the medical insurance that they have been entitled to, they’d misplaced it as a result of the state had mailed that paperwork to the unsuitable place.
Dan: Oh, and the place had the state been mailing that paperwork to? A horse pasture.
Brett Kelman: It wasn’t removed from their home, however there was definitely nobody receiving mail there
Dan: Was there like a mailbox for the horses? Like the place did they, the place did it even go? Get left.
Brett Kelman: I don’t keep in mind if there was a mailbox for the horses. I don’t suppose so. I imply, if you concentrate on this chain of occasions, they have been despatched paperwork they have been imagined to fill out and return to maintain their medical insurance, nevertheless it went to the horse pasture, so that they didn’t fill it out. Then they have been despatched a letter saying, Hey, you by no means crammed out that paperwork. We’re gonna take your medical insurance away. But it surely went to the horse pasture, so that they didn’t repair it, after which they have been despatched paperwork saying, we’ve lower off your medical insurance. You gained’t have medical insurance as of this date But it surely was despatched to the horse pasture, so that they didn’t learn about it.
Dan: And their three-year struggle to get Medicaid again befell AFTER Brett revealed his preliminary story. So, some issues, it appeared, hadn’t modified a complete lot. However one factor had occurred: In 2020, the Tennessee Justice Heart had filed a class-action lawsuit, demanding that TennCare re-enroll a couple of hundred thousand individuals who had gotten lower off– the lawsuit alleges, with out due course of. Right here’s Brett’s take:
Brett Kelman: And sure, I acknowledge that there might simply have a Medicaid recipient who will not be on high of this and ignores the paperwork and lets it rot in a pile of mail on their kitchen counter. I’ve some mail like that. I’m not going to faux like I’ve by no means completed this, however how do you inform the distinction between that particular person and someone who by no means acquired this paperwork that their little one’s well being care hinges upon?
Dan: This actual query comes up within the lawsuit. In a submitting, the state’s attorneys say TennCare doesn’t owe a listening to to anyone who says they only didn’t get paperwork. “The straightforward motive for this coverage is that it’s well-known that mail is ordinarily delivered as addressed, TennCare enrollees have a accountability to maintain this system apprised of deal with modifications (as defined to them in TennCare’s notices), and it’s exceedingly widespread for people who’ve missed a deadline to assert they didn’t obtain discover.”
Class motion lawsuits transfer slowly. This one, filed greater than 4 years in the past, solely went to trial not too long ago. A decide’s determination is … pending. In a post-trial submitting, the Tennessee Justice Heart tells the tales of 17 individuals lower off from Medicaid allegedly on account of errors by TennCare.
In TennCare’s filings, the state’s attorneys say, in impact: None of this proves there’s a systemic drawback. And as a pair individuals have stated to me: You don’t should got down to construct a foul system. Should you don’t take care to construct one, your system will certainly have issues.
We despatched TennCare an extended word about what we’ve been studying: About Brett Kelman’s reporting, in regards to the class-action lawsuit, and about what occurred to Ashley Eades. We requested them for any remark– or to tell us in the event that they thought we’d gotten something unsuitable. We haven’t heard again from them.
So, let’s zoom out slightly bit to have a look at how these techniques are working throughout 50 states. The particular person to speak to right here is Joan Alker. She’s a professor at Georgetown, and he or she runs the college’s Heart for Youngsters and Households.
Joan Alker: Yeah, Medicaid actually is my jam. I’ve been engaged on Medicaid points for about 25 years now, which is slightly horrifying.
Dan: So after all she and her colleagues have been monitoring how all 50 states have been coping with the unwinding, compiling all types of knowledge. After we talked, they’d simply up to date a ticker exhibiting what number of youngsters have been dropped in every state.
Joan Alker: We simply hit 5 million internet little one Medicaid decline simply at present. Um, in order that’s very troubling.
Dan: And in accordance with Joan Alker’s report, youngsters have been much more more likely to be dropped for “procedural causes”– paperwork points– than adults.
Joan Alker: Most of those youngsters are most likely nonetheless eligible for Medicaid and lots of of them gained’t have one other supply of protection. And that’s what I fear quite a bit about.
Dan: But it surely varies a TON. A pair states– Maine and Rhode Island– even have MORE youngsters enrolled than when the unwinding began. A half-dozen others have dropped only a few youngsters.
Joan Alker: However then we had some states that went out actually assertively and aggressively to, um, to To have fewer individuals enrolled in Medicaid
Dan: Her numbers present that Texas is a standout. They’ve acquired one level three million fewer youngsters enrolled in Medicaid than they did earlier than the unwinding… Tennessee– with all the issues documented by Brett Kelman and the Tennessee Justice Heart– is sort of across the center of the pack.
Joan Alker: Sadly, that is the norm. Proper? Once you take a look at the variety of disenrollments nationwide, the common for procedural purple tape causes is 70%. Solely 30 % of these individuals dropping Medicaid nationwide have misplaced it as a result of they’ve clearly been decided to be ineligible.
Dan: Clearly, Joan Alker will not be glad about this. However she can also be not hopeless! The unwinding has been an instance of what occurs– what can occur– while you require individuals to resume their enrollment yearly. However now some states are experimenting with … not requiring that anymore, at the least not for younger youngsters.
Joan Alker: …as a result of we all know so a lot of them are going to stay eligible. They’re low-cost to insure. They’re not the place the cash is being spent in our healthcare system. However they want common care.
Dan: Oregon, Washington, and New Mexico now preserve youngsters enrolled by age six. One other seven states are aiming to do the identical.
Joan Alker: That is an concept that we’ve been selling for like 15 years and we have been sort of crying out within the wilderness for a very long time, nevertheless it’s breaking by now
Dan: I’m not gonna lie. There’s a ton that’s not gonna get fastened with Medicaid anytime quickly. We don’t know but how the decide within the Tennessee Justice Heart’s class-action lawsuit is gonna rule. However seeing these fights, it jogs my memory of one thing I’ve stated earlier than on this present: We aren’t gonna win all of them. However we don’t should lose all of them both.
By the best way, slightly information about Ashley Eades– our mother in Nashville, who fought to maintain her son on TennCare.
Ashley Eades: Final 12 months, I began going again to highschool, and I’m going to highschool full time, and I’m working full
Dan: Oh my gosh!
Dan: And he or she’s home-schooling Lucas.
Ashley Eades: I used to be like, “we’re going to go to highschool collectively, buddy.” Like, we share a desk, you realize, and he’s like in school and I’m in school.
Dan: Wow
Ashley Eades: I needed to get inventive. um, so, yeah, I’m like, working this actually crappy, pungent job and going to highschool
Dan: And it’s figuring out.
Ashley Eades: I, um, made Dean’s Record this semester, like acquired straight A’s.
Dan: Yeah!
Dan: Ashley desires to go to Medical college. I believed you’d wish to know.
Earlier than we go, I simply wish to say THANK YOU. In our final episode, we requested you to assist us perceive sneaky facility charges, by sending your individual medical payments, and you’ve got been coming by in a giant manner. We’ve heard from greater than 30 individuals at this level. A few of you’ve got been irritated by these charges for years– a few you’ve got instructed us about driving 30 or 40 miles throughout city, hoping to keep away from them. And we’ve been listening to from of us contained in the medical billing world, providing us some deeper perception. And I couldn’t be pleased-er. Thanks a lot!
Should you’ve acquired a invoice to share, it’s not too late to pitch in, at arm-and-a-leg-show, dot com, slash FEES. I’ll catch you in a couple of weeks. Until then, care for your self.
This episode of An Arm and a Leg was produced by me, Dan Weissmann, with assist from Emily Pisacreta, and edited by Ellen Weiss. Thanks this time to Phil Galewitz of KFF Well being Information, Andy Schneider of Georgetown College’s Heart for Youngsters and Households, and Gordon Bonnyman of the Tennessee Justice Heart for sharing their experience with us. Adam Raymonda is our audio wizard. Our music is by Dave Weiner and blue dot periods. Gabrielle Healy is our managing editor for viewers. Gabe Bullard is our brand-new engagement editor. Bea Bosco is our consulting director of operations. Sarah Ballama is our operations supervisor.
And Armand a Leg is produced in partnership with KFF Well being Information. That’s a nationwide newsroom producing in-depth journalism about healthcare in America and a core program at KFF, an unbiased supply of well being coverage analysis, polling and journalism. Zach Dyer is senior audio producer at KFF Well being Information. He’s editorial liaison to this present.
And due to the Institute for Nonprofit Information for serving as our fiscal sponsor, permitting us to simply accept tax exempt donations. You’ll be able to be taught extra about INN at INN. org. Lastly, due to all people who helps this present financially– you possibly can take part any time at arm and a leg present dot com, slash, help– thanks for pitching in in case you can, and thanks for listening.
“An Arm and a Leg” is a co-production of KFF Well being Information and Public Highway Productions.
To keep up a correspondence with “An Arm and a Leg,” subscribe to the newsletter. You too can observe the present on Facebook and the social platform X. And in case you’ve acquired tales to inform in regards to the well being care system, the producers would love to hear from you.
To listen to all KFF Well being Information podcasts, click here.
And subscribe to “An Arm and a Leg” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, or wherever you hearken to podcasts.
