Georgetown Report Shows Millions of Children Could Lose Coverage

Access to healthcare services plays a pivotal role in the lives of children, with over 40 million being insured through Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). During the on-going COVID-19 Pandemic, individuals have had continuous coverage through Medicaid and CHIP without redeterminations due to a public health emergency.  During the public health emergency, states were not conducting redeterminations on eligibility for Medicaid and CHIP. When the public health emergency ends, states will need to restart conducting eligibility determinations and this process could lead to many losing coverage due to the administrative burden and this could especially hit children hard who are covered by CHIP. According to Georgetown University Health Policy Institute for the Center for Children and Families, about 6.7 million children could lose their coverage as a result of the administrative burden of conducting such a large number of redeterminations as well as other potential issues. States will need to address these issues before April 2022 when the public health emergency ends and redeterminations will have to resume in order to ensure that children can maintain their healthcare coverage.