Medicaid coverage might end for millions of Americans

COVID-era relaxations on Medicaid are ending and more than 14 million people could lose access to health coverage as early as April this year.

Why?
The government-sponsored program—Medicaid—covers around 84 million people in the US out of which 20 million were added without any eligibility requirement during the COVID-19 public health emergency.

But states are now required to resume checking the eligibility criteria for the Medicaid program, which means several may lose the benefit because of their income status.

From April, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oklahoma and West Virginia will remove ineligible Medicaid beneficiaries, and other states will follow throughout 2023.

Not only Medicaid, SNAP too
The additional $95 to $250 households received per month under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) ends this week.

The boost in SNAP helped low-income families push through the difficulties they faced during the pandemic. 

In March, SNAP benefits will be back to pre-pandemic levels.